I all but expected some no-shows for the family’s multiple Yuletide gatherings, but fortunately all 14 grandkids and their parents remained happy and healthy throughout the holiday season.
Which I consider a mild Christmas miracle.
That’s because this has been a harsh flu season, with the number of influenza cases doubling from November through December, says Dr. Sunil Patel, Illinois regional chief medical officer over Prime Healthcare, which includes Aurora’s Mercy Medical Center.
“And we continue to see the numbers increasing at our Illinois hospitals,” he noted, with more than one in five ER visits flu-related.
Dr. Jonathan Pinsky, medical director of infectious disease at Endeavor Edward Hospital in Naperville, told me ER flu patients in his health care system “blew up” from Thanksgiving into the holidays … going from about 1% of visits to 17.2%, with 2,875 flu cases around Dec. 21.
Hospitalizations for the flu also skyrocketed at Endeavor facilities in that time period, jumping from eight patients to 105 on average admitted per day at the close of 2025, he said.
Likewise, the week of Christmas saw a peak at Rush Copley, according to Matt Canning, infection prevention and quality analyst at the Aurora hospital, pointing out that during that time 30% of testing for influenza, RSV and COVID-19 turned out positive.
Indeed, the rates are so high that some hospitals, including Edward and Rush Copley, are now stepping up masking requirements.
The culprit behind “one of the busiest” viral seasons is the dominant flu variant – H3N2, a subtype of Influenza A – that is “not a good match” for the flu vaccine, meaning “it will not protect you as well,” pointed out Pinsky.
While a drop in last week’s hospitalization numbers at some facilities could indicate we’ve already peaked, these health care experts note last year’s high came in February, with another spike in March.
Dr. Santina Wheat, program director for the McGaw Northwestern Family Medicine Residency at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, admitted she’s “concerned,” especially with children back in school this week after their holiday break.
Wheat and her colleagues are also wary because severe flu seasons historically tend to hit every six or seven years, yet this is the second year in a row we’re dealing with such high numbers.
“It makes me nervous,” said Wheat. “I’ve seen it moving rapidly and more people are showing up in the ER than even last year. It is catching people off guard and worse than what we were hoping for.”
Plus, fewer people are getting vaccinated, say the experts, who also expressed concern about the amount of “misinformation” out there about vaccine safety.
This vaccine may not be a perfect match, but it still offers protection against severe illness, they insist, also noting that in addition to the very young and elderly being most at risk, there’s a lengthy list of conditions that also make a person susceptible, including asthma, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
Still, there’s encouraging signs, even if anecdotally, that more people are taking this flu season seriously, said Canning, who is frequently “out and about” walking Rush Copley.
In addition to seeing more people wearing masks, there have been “fewer calls” from the front desk about people pushing back against protective policies.
“There’s never going to be a study that says masks are less effective,” he noted. “This year there seems to be better compliance.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
