This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan (bridgemi.com), a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from Bridge Michigan, sign up for a free Bridge Michigan newsletter here.

Driven by a new virus strain, flu season is packing a punch across Michigan and the US
As of Monday, 818 adults and children were in Michigan’s hospitals with flu — twice the number as last year at this time
Fewer than 1 in 4 Michiganders are vaccinated against the flu

Peak flu season may be worse than usual this year, driven in part by a potent new strain of influenza. As of Monday, Michigan hospitals reported that 818 of their inpatients — 759 adults and 59 children — had influenza, according to the Michigan Health & Hospital Association.

And while the majority of the hospitalized patients are 75 and older, it is very young children — 4 years and under — who make up the next highest rate for hospitalizations, according to the newest state data.

In addition, 540 Michigan hospital patients have tested positive for COVID, according to Jim Lee, the organization’s senior vice president of policy and data analytics.

And that doesn’t count thousands of outpatients treated at emergency rooms, doctors offices and urgent care centers for flu, COVID and other respiratory misery.

“You couple (flu and COVID) with RSV, the common cold, and rhinovirus, and we’re a pretty sick state,” said Dr. Terry Matthews, CEO and medical director of Lansing Urgent Care, which operates eight sites.

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It’s the “layer cake effect,” in that the respiratory illnesses — strep throat is another one — add up to “a significant base layer of sick patients,” according to Urgent Care Consultants, which tracks data for the industry.

“Right now, Michigan is fighting a specific Flu A epidemic that has landed on top of a stubborn, high baseline of COVID and Strep,” Alan Ayers, president of Urgent Care Consultants, told Bridge by email.

“If you are walking into an urgent care today with sudden, severe symptoms, the data suggests it is far more likely to be the flu than it was just three weeks ago,” Ayers wrote.

By early Tuesday, another seven flu outbreaks in congregate settings including schools, nursing homes and a prison had been reported to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, bringing the total to 32 this season.

Michigan isn’t alone in reaching for the tissues and Tamiflu and other medications.

Across the US, levels of flu cases in nearly every state, including Michigan, are listed as “high” or “very high,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As the year closed, more than 9,800 Americans were hospitalized with severe flu symptoms — bringing the total to 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 flu-related deaths since Oct. 25, according to data released late Monday by the CDC.

A bright spot? Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, cases have slid, according to both Ayers and Lee.

Shape-shifting misery

The surge in flu is likely driven by a new strain known as H3N2 subclade K or the “super flu.”

The genetics of the flu virus evolve each year in a process known as antigenic drift, forcing drugmakers to reformulate each season’s flu vaccines. In this case, the subclade K virus emerged in June, after the US had settled on its vaccine formula for the 2025-26 season, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.

To what extent the new flu virus evades this season’s vaccine is still unclear. Experts have said flu vaccines help reduce symptoms if they don’t prevent the flu altogether.

A map of flu cases around the country — (Courtesy of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

It’s mostly unvaccinated patients that doctors are seeing at Lansing Urgent Care, which operates eight clinics, said Matthews, its CEO.

Some patients mistakenly believe that a flu vaccine they received years ago is still effective, he said. It’s not.

“They’re paying the price,” he said. “They’re out of work, they’re miserable, their children aren’t going to school.”

Subclade K is more potent, Matthews said, “and it seems to target those less able to fight off an infection.”

Ayers agreed, noting that the steep upward swing in Flu A cases suggests “a highly contagious strain is circulating rapidly now that holiday gatherings have concluded.”

Several medical groups, as well as the state of Michigan, recommend vaccines against influenza, COVID and RSV. (Michigan’s recommendations are here.)

About 2.4 million Michiganders — or fewer than 1 in 4 — are vaccinated against the flu. Fewer than 850,000 Michiganders — or fewer than 1 in 10 — are vaccinated against COVID, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. (Michiganders can get flu vaccines at their local health department or at clinics listed at the Vaccine Finder website.)

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