March 10, 2023 – The 2022-23 flu season hovered on the fringes of its defined existence through the second half of January and most of February, but now it appears to be over.
For the CDC, the annual epidemic The so-called flu season “occurs when influenza activity is above a 'baseline' level defined by the CDC.” This level, expressed as a share of all outpatient visits to health care providers within the US Outpatient ILI Surveillance Network attributable to influenza-like illness, is currently 2.5%.
Over the past 6 weeks, the national number has ranged from 2.6% (February 19-25) to 2.7% (January 15-21). In other words, it has seemed as if there is no such thing as a flu season. has already stoppedat the very least not because the CDC began setting a national baseline in 2007/08.
But through the week of February 26 to March 4, outpatient visits for influenza-like illnesses accounted for less than 2.4% of all visits, in line with the CDC. Influenza Division reportedfalling below the baseline for the primary time because the first week of October 2022.
At the time, the early start of the flu season raised fears of a “triple epidemic” involving respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19. But because the flu season reached its peak, RSV activity had already begun to say no and the expected increase in COVID cases didn't materialize, CDC data shows.
Since the beginning of the 2022-23 flu season, the CDC estimates that there have been at the very least 26 million flu illnesses, 290,000 hospitalizations, and 18,000 deaths within the United States, including 125 deaths amongst children.