The language below is from an email I received from the New York Times (thanks, Sam Sifton!). Here is an article (unlocked) that goes into more detail about the new variant. The New Flu Variant
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The flu came early this year. Britain, Australia and Japan have already seen spikes. The United States appears not far behind. New York City and its suburbs recently recorded some of the highest levels of flulike illness in the United States, my colleagues report. (A private school in Brooklyn closed for two days earlier this month after roughly a third of students became ill.) The numbers aren’t great in Louisiana or Colorado either. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows spikes in Denver and in New Orleans and Lafayette, La.
The dominant strain of the flu virus circulating this season is H3N2 subclade K, reports Dani Blum, who covers health. H3N2 is a common strain. But the new variant — that subclade — is a doozy. It may enable the virus to spread more widely. The flu shot may not stop you from getting subclade K, but it helps guard against becoming seriously sick. Here’s mom again: Get that jab.
In Britain, where I’ve been for the last week, the flu season started so early and has accelerated so quickly that the tabloids here are calling it the “super flu.” ... It’s too soon to know if the same will happen in the United States, an expert told Dani. But there are a lot of infections, and we’re still weeks from when doctors generally see high-water marks for the illness. In 2024, New York City didn’t have 10,000 laboratory-reported cases of flu until late December. This year, the city crossed that threshold three weeks ago.