{"id":406169,"date":"2026-01-14T07:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406169\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T07:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:10:17","slug":"heck-of-a-lot-of-flu-in-west-michigan-taxing-hospital-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/406169\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Heck of a lot of flu’ in West Michigan, taxing hospital systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

In West Michigan, a surge in flu cases strains hospitals, exacerbated by low vaccination rates and a new influenza mutation.<\/p>\n

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. \u2014 There is a lot of flu going around West Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s kind of like the good old days of COVID, where just it has a snowball effect, and everyone feels it,\u201d said Dr. Andrew Jameson, an infectious disease doctor at Trinity Health Grand Rapids. “There’s just a heck of a lot of flu in West Michigan right now.”<\/p>\n

Hospitalizations for influenza are increasing, Jameson said. It has started to tax the daily functioning of the hospital system, with the influx of flu patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, our hospital was super busy,\u201d said Jameson. \u201cMost the other hospitals were too, in the community. We were opening our extra units. There was a lot of stress on our nursing units, a lot of stress on our nurses and PCAs. It’s just a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new influenza virus mutation is spreading across the United States, increasingly infecting Americans. It is a strain of influenza A called “H3N2 subclade K,”\u00a0according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/a> It was identified in August 2025.<\/p>\n

However, Jameson pointed to a recent study showing this season\u2019s flu vaccine is giving decent coverage against the new strain. However, he said vaccination levels are \u201csuper low.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a ton of vaccine fatigue, and people are sick of it,\u201d said Jameson. \u201cThey don’t want to do it. What happens then is, you’re young, you’re pretty healthy, then you end up giving it to the people that aren’t. And it’s just a reality where I feel like we’ve shifted into a mentality of \u2018think about ourselves\u2019 and not think about the impact on others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jameson explained the vast majority, more than 80% he estimated, of people who are hospitalized are unvaccinated against the flu. It is not just older, immuno-compromised people having major health effects, either. Jameson explains there is a concern of a secondary infection following influenza affecting younger patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a young kid in the hospital that got the flu, 20 years old, did really fine with the flu, just kind of high fevers and body aches for a couple days,\u201d said Jameson. \u201cThen all of a sudden, he got one of the worst sinus infections I’ve seen in a while, and he ended up with a brain abscess where it extended from his sinuses into his brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not too late to get a flu shot. While it will take a couple weeks to be fully effective after administration, the season will continue for a few more months.<\/p>\n

Jameson said if you are feeling under the weather, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, contact your healthcare provider. There are treatment options to help you feel better. Second, at-home testing has improved, and he suggests you take one. Many tests will check for both influenza and COVID.<\/p>\n

Also, even just on the onset of an illness, put on a mask or avoid being around other people to whom you could spread the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In West Michigan, a surge in flu cases strains hospitals, exacerbated by low vaccination rates and a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":{"0":"post-406169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-health-care","10":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}