As Illinois experiences its most severe flu season in over a decade, public health officials report rising hospitalizations and lower vaccination rates across the state.
Influenza spreads year after year for one key reason: it mutates.
Christopher Brooke, professor in LAS who studies how influenza viruses mutate and affect an individual’s immune system, said the flu persists because new strains emerge that the body does not immediately recognize.
“The reason why we keep having to deal with the flu year after year is because the virus evolves fairly quickly globally,” Brooke said. “New variants of the virus spread … every year, and these variants have evolved in ways that change how your immune system sees them.”
That constant change forces scientists to reformulate the flu vaccine annually. Researchers must predict which strains will dominate months in advance because current vaccine production methods take about nine months.
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Brooke said flu vaccine effectiveness usually ranges from 30% to 60%, varying each season based on how closely the vaccine aligns with circulating strains. Last year, it was approximately 56% effective.
Champaign County health officials have also reported rising flu activity in the county. Particularly on a campus as populated as the University’s, illnesses like the flu can spread fast.
Luci Kazaitis, sophomore in Education, experienced the flu firsthand while living in the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority house.
“I had a 102-degree fever,” Kazaitis said. “I was sweating, I had the chills — I could barely get out of bed. I was just so weak that I couldn’t do, like, anything.”
Kazaitis did not receive her flu shot this year, but after recovering, she said the experience changed her perspective on vaccination.
She and her roommates compared who had gotten the flu shot and who had not, and she noticed that the roommate who received the vaccine did not contract the flu. Kazaitis said seeing that contrast and realizing how accessible free flu shots are across campus made her reconsider her decision.
In recent years, however, vaccinations — including the annual flu shot — have become increasingly politicized, largely due to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism.
Last Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration refused to review Moderna’s application for its new mRNA-based flu vaccine. The refusal wasn’t tied to safety or efficacy concerns, but to regulatory issues regarding how the company designed its clinical trials.
“Unfortunately, the current administration is really sabotaging vaccine research and infectious disease research,” Brooke said. “It’s a really frustrating situation; to feel like we’re on the cusp of really making a breakthrough in this space and then to have it basically be sabotaged by the current administration.”
Advances in mRNA technology could allow scientists to update flu vaccines more quickly and potentially reduce the need for frequent reformulation.
The FDA stated the decision was related to trial design, not safety or effectiveness. Still, Brooke said postponing new vaccine approaches could slow research needed to better respond to the changing virus.
Brooke said misunderstandings about how the flu vaccine works persist, particularly the common belief that the shot can give someone the flu.
“You can’t get (the) flu from the vaccine,” Brooke said. “That’s something I hear a lot. First off, the vaccine is not a living virus; it can’t replicate, it can’t cause disease or anything like that. Second, we often get our flu shots kind of at the start of flu season when … there are lots of other viruses that cause cold and flu-like symptoms in people.”
As trust in public health declines and misinformation spreads, fewer people are getting vaccinated against the flu. With the virus constantly changing, the risk of harmful flu seasons remains high.
