Health leaders are still encouraging you to get your flu vaccine. The shots are available at hundreds of locations across metro Detroit, including at pharmacies, doctor's offices, urgent cares and even some grocery stores.
I took a look at the state's health website and it shows that as of two weeks ago, more than 2.5 million doses of the flu vaccine had been administered this season. That's about 24% of Michigan's population.
Right now, Michigan's flu activity is "very high," according to the CDC.
I spoke with Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive, about surging cases of flu in Michigan.
"The CDC website has us in very high flu activity. Is that what we're seeing here on the ground or is that just sort of a national view?" I asked.
Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, Michigan's Chief Medical Executive: [00:00:42]
"We are seeing a lot of influenza here. Influenza A seems to be the predominant pathogen that is impacting people right now. And we're seeing this in a number of our metrics," Bagdasarian said. "We're seeing this in our wastewater data. We're seeing this in our emergency department data, and we're seeing this on the number of people testing positive for influenza A, So that is definitely something that is spreading like wildfire right now."
I also asked how much longer she expects this to continue.
"Are there any forecasts for what, the remainder of the flu season, the remainder of the infectious disease season might look like?" I asked.
"Well, with with all of these things, one of our best predictors is wastewater. And what we're seeing right now is wastewater is telling us that COVID-19 in wastewater is somewhat lower. And influenza in wastewater is higher. So I would expect to see those influenza rates continue to tick up a little bit longer just based on that wastewater data," Bagdasarian said.
