According the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, incidence of flu viruses in US including Minnesota are reportedly high. Referring to the data from the CDC, CNN Health writes “Flu season has gotten off to an early and severe start in the US, with hospitalization rates hitting levels that typically aren’t seen until December or January”.

The CDC director Dr. Rachelle Walensky told at a weekly news briefing “We, of course, look in real time as to how well we think the influenza match is to what is circulating right now. The good news is that looks like it is a very good match.”

Dr. Walensky added “even when the vaccine doesn’t closely match the circulating flu strains, We see a 35% decrease in rates of hospitalization … which really just emphasizes, when we do have a good match, how much more effective it will be.”

Dr. Walensky advises people wear face mask. “In the meantime, what I do want to say is, one need not take wait for CDC action in order to put a mask.”

Responding to a question about shortages of key medications during this rough virus season, Walensky reported said “CDC is aware of the reports of some of the shortages for both antivirals as well as antibiotics across the country. I know FDA is working…with manufacturers to try and explore what can be done to address this.”

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told CNN “he and his colleagues have been astonished by the steep increase in flu cases this season. They have also wondered what could be causing it. Some of it has got to do with our behaviors in the past, having avoided flu and now opening up our lives to activities such as travel, religious services, getting together with families, going out to entertainment venues and doing all those things that take us into groups.”

“It keeps you out of the emergency room, the hospital, the intensive care unit and the cemetery. It’s not very good at interrupting transmission, and it is not very good at preventing milder infection,” Dr. Shaffner added. “The vaccine works least well among the population we most want to protect, namely older people, and that’s because they have immune systems that are much less robust than the immune systems of younger people.”