{"id":419123,"date":"2026-01-19T10:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419123\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T10:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T10:58:07","slug":"why-the-flu-is-so-bad-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419123\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the flu is so bad this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/5WP3GDSQFVJ33HDL4GKDYSCVUQ.jpg?auth=87f5b3e026c1487213afe12c2a6eda539a6e3c9cc84e35e82281bf55d302c508&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">A pharmacist administers the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at University Pharmacy in Vancouver in April, 2021.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>Listen to this episode by clicking above or subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/podcasts\/the-decibel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/podcasts\/the-decibel\/\">The Decibel<\/a> on your favourite podcast app or platform: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-decibel\/id1565410296?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-decibel\/id1565410296?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3qYDbRr9geEsFkkwkq3oeL?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/3qYDbRr9geEsFkkwkq3oeL?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\">Spotify<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/41787d0e-cbd2-4d33-96e5-506ca588241b\/the-decibel?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/41787d0e-cbd2-4d33-96e5-506ca588241b\/the-decibel?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\">Amazon Music<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/269-the-decibel-81650306\/?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/podcast\/269-the-decibel-81650306\/?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\">iHeartRadio<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/6yr6jcgb?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/6yr6jcgb?utm_source=globeandmail&amp;utm_medium=podcastepisodepage&amp;utm_campaign=decibel_mkt\">Pocket Casts<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjt27UiMlbQXaZvGPVS3iacAbBQrebVmS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLjt27UiMlbQXaZvGPVS3iacAbBQrebVmS\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The flu season hit Canada hard and fast this year, seemingly reaching its peak in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-flu-cases-in-canada-rise-above-three-season-high\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">late December<\/a>. But it\u2019s not over yet: One public-health official says we\u2019re still in the \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-influenza-flu-vaccines-health-virus-covid-doctors\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">heavy, middle part<\/a>\u2019 of flu season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/authors\/alanna-smith\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alanna Smith<\/a> explains what\u2019s different about this year\u2019s dominant variant of the influenza virus and the impact it\u2019s having on Canada\u2019s health care system. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/podcasts\/the-decibel\/article-flu-season-influenza-a-subclade-k-health-vaccine\/mailto:thedecibel@globeandmail.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thedecibel@globeandmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A pharmacist administers the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at University Pharmacy in Vancouver in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,876,39919,39921,39913,39916,39917,84,39918,39915,1398,1399,1404,175875,39920,39914,1400],"class_list":["post-419123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canadian-daily-news-podcast","tag-daily-podcast-canada","tag-decibel","tag-decibel-globe-and-mail","tag-decibel-podcast","tag-health","tag-listen-to-decibel-podcast","tag-listen-to-the-decibel","tag-nodelphi","tag-nopolly","tag-podcast","tag-podcast-episode-id-06eb4662-98e8-4b68-bdab-d609b4b657d0","tag-the-daily-for-canada","tag-thedecibel","tag-yespop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}