Fewer Michiganders getting yearly flu shot; season mild so far – MLive.com

Michigan is on pace to have the lowest flu shot coverage of the last five years.

Through the end of January, the state health department was reporting about 2.75 million doses administered, more than 300,000 doses shy of the coverage at the same time last year. The states goal is 4 million people vaccinated.

Even factoring in reporting delays, the state appears headed for a third consecutive year of declining flu shot uptake, dating back to the 2020-21 flu season.

Thus far, Michigans flu season has been relatively mild.

Test positivity remains below 20% and the states level of influenza-like illness is moderate, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats better than the 13 states, including neighboring Ohio, that currently have high level flu activity.

Flu activity in Michigan climbed to a high level briefly in late December, around the time residents were gathering for the holidays. It declined for a few weeks but has since started to rise again.

Dr. Lea Monday, an infectious disease physician for Detroit Medical Center, called it the bunny ear pattern. Most years there are two waves of flu activity with a break in the middle.

Its hard to tell if the second peak will be as big as the first or if itll just go back down but its not an unusual pattern, Monday said.

In 2022-23, flu cases jumped earlier than in recent years but had tailed off by February. Flu seasons in 2018 and 2019 had their peaks in March and April, so it is possible there could be a rise in cases in the coming months.

For the week ending Feb. 3, about 3.7% of Michigans outpatient hospital visits, based on data collected from a sampling of Michigan heath care providers, were for flu-like illness. That was up from 3.3% the week prior, but remained below the national average (4.4%).

Dr. Russ Lampen, medical director of infection prevention for Corewell Health in West Michigan, said its difficult to draw conclusions from one year to the next when looking at flu cases and vaccinations.

We can have a bad year even when vaccination rates are high due to a poor match of the virus to the vaccine, Lampen said. Conversely, we can have low admission rates when circulating strains and the vaccine match well. Our influenza season last year was pretty severe, but also occurred earlier than normal. Our current influenza season appears to be occurring later in the year, with cases still on the rise.

Across the state in Detroit, Monday said itll still be a few months before the medical community will know the efficacy of this years flu shot. However, evidence from the Southern Hemisphere, which undergoes its flu season first, suggests it has been effective at preventing serious illness.

The fact that (vaccination) rates are low and were not seeing worse numbers may be a reflection that people who have gotten the shot arent getting severely sick, Monday said. If youre not getting the shot, youre really throwing the dice.

Monday attributes the decline in flu shot uptake to two factors both related to the COVID-19 pandemic fatigue and the politicization of vaccines. Theres also the misconception that getting the flu means the vaccine didnt work.

We have to think of it like the CDCs wild to mild campaign, Monday said. Its not that you wont get it ... the idea is vaccination takes it from being catastrophic if youre unlucky, to a mild inconvenience.

To date, the CDC estimates there been at least 22 million flu cases, 250,000 hospitalizations and 15,000 deaths. There have been 74 pediatric deaths from the flu this season, none of which have been reported in Michigan.

Counties with the lowest flu shot coverage in the state, according to health department data, include:

If the city of Detroit was a county, it would have the second-lowest uptake at 12.6% vaccinated.

Meanwhile, counties with the highest flu shot coverage include:

To find a flu vaccine near you, contact your local health department or physicians office, or visit the online vaccine finder at vaccines.gov/find-vaccines.

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Fewer Michiganders getting yearly flu shot; season mild so far - MLive.com