The flu, COVID-19 and other seasonal viruses have smashed into state residents, and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have surged as vaccination rates continue to plummet in the state.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) reported the end of December saw very high activity of influenza cases that were among the nation’s highest. The state saw an 11.3% increase with a total of 13,568 patients going to the hospital with flu-like symptoms.

“Flu is not a mild illness for many children. Every year, children become seriously ill from flu complications that really could have been prevented by vaccination. Some of these children require intensive care, and children and adolescents who die from the flu were not vaccinated,” said University of Michigan Medicine Pediatrics Professor Dr. Aarti Raheja.

Raheja said 14 Michigan children died of the flu last year. So far in 2026, nine have died nationally, but none from Michigan. Overall, 2,110 flu cases resulted in hospitalizations with 306 being ages 4 and under.

“The best way to prevent flu is to get your flu vaccine. It’s not too late at all to go in and get your flu vaccine, because flu has not peaked yet,” Raheja said.

She said people with the flu should stay home and stay hydrated.

MDDHS Chief Medical Executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian said masking, hand sanitizer and a healthy diet are also recommended with the vaccine to help keep people out of the hospital.

Bagdasarian said the intensive care unit capacity in hospitals across the state was a “little tighter” with more flu cases. She said MDHHS doesn’t have the data yet on if those people in the hospital were vaccinated or unvaccinated.

“They are still managing and still able to take care of all the other needs from patients in the state of Michigan at this time, but we’re going to keep an eye on this,” Bagdasarian said.

She said the effectiveness of this year’s vaccine has been doing well with the H3N2 variant that has been circulating in the state, and MDHHS was worried there could have been another strain that was worse.

“Even with this concern about potential mismatch, it is still effective at preventing those severe complications from happening, so the vaccine is still the most effective way we have to protect our residents here in Michigan,” she said.

The number of people vaccinated for the flu has been going down since 2020 and this year there were 24% who had taken it, with 18% of children taking it, according to Bagdasarian.

It wasn’t just the flu that was seeing lower vaccination rates, there were also lower rates of vaccination for vaccine-preventable viruses, such as measles and pertussis, which Bagdasarian discussed with the Board of Education in December.

She said 2025 was the worst recorded year for measles in the nation since 1992. She said Michigan has been getting through, not by luck, but personnel.

She said the biggest obstacle doctors were running into was one of trust, and it was a matter of getting credible information in front of the people that needed it the most in a way they would trust.

“Because every parent is trying to make the best decision possible for their family and that is not something that we can legislate,” she said.

She said what the legislature can do is make sure public health departments are funded in a sustainable way, even as cuts are coming down from the federal government.

“I think what we’re seeing with these federal changes, this is likely just one step along the way to potentially more changes, and we’ve got to be prepared. We’ve got to be ready, and that is going to mean having that flexible funding,” she said.

She said with more than 2,000 cases of measles in the U.S. it is already a disaster happening, but she said she hopes it doesn’t have to get worse for people to realize the value of vaccines. She said the problem wasn’t hitting people, because it wasn’t in their face and happening to their own children or loved ones.

“I’m seeing this disaster happen in slow motion, and I don’t know how to better reach parents and how to better tell this story,” she said.

This story courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.