The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 1.2% of patient visits reported through the U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network were due to influenza-like illness (ILI) during week #42. 
This ILI percentage is well below the national baseline rate of 2.6%.
‘While outpatient ILI activity remains low, many people are accessing the healthcare system in alternative settings. Therefore, traditional healthcare providers are not seeing increased numbers of cases of ILI,’ says the CDC.

Each year, influenza vaccines are redesigned to account for virus mutations that reduce the protections people gain from the annual flu shot.
To address these virus mutations, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ragon Institute of MIT, Mass General Hospital (MGH), and Harvard University announced they are working on strategies for designing a universal flu vaccine that could work against any flu strain. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new findings that indicate about 40 percent of pregnant women do not receive influenza and Tdap vaccines, leaving themselves and their infants more vulnerable to influenza and pertussis infection.
The CDC researchers noted in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on October 2, 2020, that during the 2019-20 flu season, 61.2 percent of surveyed pregnant women received the flu vaccine, which was 7.5 percentage points higher than the previous flu season.

New data released by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) showed that only 59 percent of US adults intend to get vaccinated against influenza during the 2020-2021 flu season. 
According to statements published on October 1, 2020, this percent is concerning to public health officials, who are bracing for the potential impact from a dual outbreak of flu and COVID-19 this winter. 

While most of the USA remains focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to also be aware of the 2020-2021 influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere that is fast approaching.
Influenza (flu) viruses typically spread each fall and winter, with activity peaking between December and February, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a digital statement published on September 30, 2020.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic led to fewer influenza virus cases being reported during the April to August 2020 time-period. 
This reduction in flu cases throughout the Southern Hemisphere as of September 25, 2020, was related to travel restrictions, coronavirus mitigation strategies, and social distancing measures.

A worldwide leader in influenza prevention announced the publication of new real-world evidence (RWE) that demonstrated an MF59® adjuvanted, trivalent influenza vaccine (aTIV) was more effective than a standard-dose, non-adjuvanted trivalent seasonal vaccine in preventing influenza-related medical office visits and hospitalizations in seniors during the 2017-2018 influenza season in the USA.
Adding MF59® adjuvant to an influenza vaccine is designed to enhance the immune response to the influenza strains contained in the vaccine in adults 65 years and older.

As influenza viruses approach the Northern Hemisphere during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are questioning which flu shot will perform best with the pending coronavirus vaccines becoming available.
Two companies believe they have a solution to this pending quandary.  
Massachusetts-based Vaxess Technologies has formed a partnership with the Taiwanese pharmaceutical company, Medigen Vaccine Biologics to develop a combined COVID-19 and quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine, delivered via the novel MIMIX patch system.

Penn Medicine researchers have found that those born in the late 1960s and the 1970s may be in a perpetual state of H3N2 influenza virus susceptibility, because their antibodies bind to H3N2 viruses, but fail to prevent infections.
According to a new study led by Scott Hensley, Ph.D., an associate professor of microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine in Pennsylvania, it is possible that the presence of high levels of non-neutralizing antibodies in middle-aged adults has contributed to the continued persistence of H3N2 viruses in the human population.

‘The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic may become more difficult as we enter the fall and winter flu season,’ sate Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH). 
‘Each year influenza causes a surge in hospitalizations, and in combination with COVID-19, is a serious concern for healthcare systems across the USA,’ said Dr. Collins in a September 9, 2020 testimony.