Flu visits double as early season puts vaccines in focus

Flu-related medical visits doubled from a year earlier in Epic Research data, putting vaccination timing in focus as the season starts early.

The rate recorded for the week ending September 13 was twice the comparable level in 2025, according to Epic Research. The organization placed the season’s arrival roughly seven weeks ahead of the timing seen in both 2025 and 2024.

Epic records an earlier start

Epic Research draws on records from hospitals using Epic’s electronic medical record system. Its measure covers encounters involving flu across physician offices, emergency departments and hospitals, making it a measure of medical visits rather than a count of everyone infected.

Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas were among the states experiencing the greatest flu activity in the findings. That geographic concentration matters when interpreting the national picture: the report identifies places already recording heavier activity, rather than describing an identical start across the country.

The comparison establishes an earlier increase in visits, not the eventual severity or duration of the season. The supplied figures do not separate the rise into hospital admissions, emergency visits and office appointments, leaving the distribution of that medical burden unclear.

Flu vaccines offer different formats

The vaccine choices include products that differ in how they are administered and which age groups they serve. Sanofi’s Fluzone comes in standard and high-dose formulations, while AstraZeneca’s FluMist offers a nasal-spray option rather than an injection.

CSL Seqirus’s Fluad is another option for older adults. These distinctions are separate from the strains targeted: the available US flu vaccines described in the material are trivalent, covering H1N1, H3N2 and B/Victoria.

One strain is also central to the uncertainty surrounding this season. Infectious-disease physician Celine Gounder warned that a mutation affecting H3N2 might worsen the season, especially among people younger than 25; that is an assessment of risk, not an established outcome.

Moderna study measures antibody response

A study published in Nature Immunology compared Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine with GSK’s Fluarix in 75 US participants. Researchers reported higher antibody titers with Moderna’s vaccine, adding an immune-response comparison to the discussion about different vaccine technologies.

That finding needs to be read within its stated scope. The reported result concerns antibody levels; the study summary provides no numerical comparison of flu infections, hospitalizations or other clinical outcomes between the two groups.

The distinction matters for any claim that one product offers better protection than another. Higher antibody measurements are the finding described here, while the supplied study details do not establish the size of any advantage against illness or quantify differences in side effects.

The next consequential evidence is whether the early increase in medical visits persists and how much of it involves hospital care. For vaccine comparisons, clinical outcomes and safety results would address different questions from antibody measurements, while the effect of the H3N2 mutation remains uncertain.