Flu Season

Susan Estrich on Jan 8, 2026

I thought I was reading something wrong. The same story had two "headlines" on the screen.

One announced that the flu season surged in the United States over the holidays and already rivals last winter's harsh epidemic.

The other -- the caption for the picture of a flu shot that ran with the story -- announced that the Trump administration said it no longer will recommend flu shots and other types of vaccines for all children.

Same day. Same story. Flu is raging out of control. More people are getting sicker. Children are getting hit hard. Seniors are ending up in the hospital. People are dying.

What to do?

Cut back on vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates at least 11 million illnesses, 120,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths from flu have already occurred this season.

Until now, the uniform recommendation was that everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot, as long as their immune system was strong enough. That was until Monday. No major new studies were done to change anything. The only thing that changed was the politics. The anti-vaxxer with all vaccinated children promised the Senate that he wouldn't mess with childhood vaccines.

He did.

With the flu raging out of control, federal health officials on Monday announced they no longer will recommend flu vaccinations for children, saying it's a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.

Great. We're effectively taking away health insurance from millions of people, eliminating the subsidies that make incomplete plans at least partly affordable, and then telling parents to go have a conversation with the doctor they don't have about whether their child should have a flu shot? And the hepatitis shot? There's a whole list of what you're going to have to ask for instead of automatically getting.

Fewer children will be vaccinated. Isn't that the whole point? The ones whose parents get told it's not necessary, not required, dangerous even, or maybe just up to them? The ones who never have a consultation with anyone?

And then more will get sick.

I believe in vaccines. I come from the tail end of the polio generation. Older kids got it. We heard about it. But it was the miracle of modern medicine that we stood in line at school and were spared it. I did not stop obsessing about COVID until my loved ones were vaccinated, which was not enough to protect my daughter from contracting long COVID, but it has saved millions of lives.

Have we forgotten that?

I have always thought of parents -- and pediatricians -- who don't vaccinate their children as selfish, assuming their own children are hardy enough to weather serious illness (which they may not be) without considering the others whom they are exposing, including kids and adults who are immunocompromised. When my kids were younger, and I was on the board, it was our policy to require all kids to be fully vaccinated unless there was a specific medical reason why they could not be. Fewer diseases. Herd immunity.

MAGA-MAHA-MAN Kennedy managed to rewire the bureaucracy and restructure the various Advisory Boards to give a voice to a faction that did not earn one on the merits of its science. He is now acting on it. It is possible to protect yourself and your family. You can get vaccinated, as Kennedy did for his own children, as President Donald Trump did for flu and COVID last October. You can find a doctor you trust who will make sure you get what you need, recognizing that insurance wouldn't be covering the full list, which it is, unless we all really needed it.

But not everyone can. Be well.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.