Pennsylvania facing "very high" flu activity: What to know

The big picture: There have been at least 29 million cases across the country, the most since the 2009-2010 flu season, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

• It's left hundreds of thousands of Americans hospitalized while straining physicians' offices and emergency departments.
• Flu hospitalizations and deaths have surpassed COVID-19 for the first time since the pandemic, said Carol McLay, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Zoom in: February is typically peak flu season, the Pennsylvania Department of Health says.

• State data from the most recent week shows more than double the number of reported cases compared with the same time last year.
• There have been more than 153,000 cases statewide as of Feb. 15, including 348 deaths. The previous two seasons, there were more than 500 and 430 flu deaths, respectively.
• The percentage of flu-related deaths has outpaced COVID-19 deaths since Jan. 25, per state data. The weekly rate of flu-related ER visits is currently higher than coronavirus and RSV combined.

Philadelphia is seeing higher flu infection rates than peaks in November-December 2022, health spokesperson James Kyle tells Axios.

• Philadelphia's flu rate is about 1,031 cases per 100,000 people, similar to collar counties such as Bucks (1,052) and Montgomery (956).
• Philly has reported more than 16,000 cases this season.

What they're saying: Philadelphian Kaitlyn Covert tells Axios that she started taking the flu more seriously after the death of her 4-year-old cousin and her own hospitalization last fall.

• The 19-year-old, now a freshman at the University of Florida, was on the brink of sepsis after contracting both flu strains. It left her with a condition known as post-viral depression.
• "You may think the flu is not a big deal, but it needs to be taken seriously," Covert tells Axios.

Zoom out: Experts are concerned about the severity being seen in kids this year, including reports of some pediatric cases with serious neurological complications associated with the flu.

• Across the U.S., 68 children have died of the flu.

• Pediatric flu deaths hit a record 200 last year, and this season is shaping up to be worse, said Matthew Cook, president and CEO of Children's Hospital Association.

Between the lines: This flu season may have been made more severe because rates of seasonal flu vaccination have been falling in recent years for some groups, including children.

• Compounding the problem is the fact that this year's flu vaccine has been a bit less effective (35%) than in a typical year (45%).
• People have also had much less exposure to flu in recent years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
• "We think because people were social distancing and using masks for so long during COVID that we have reduced immunity to it," McLay said.

What we're watching: Public health officials say they are increasingly flying blind since they can't interact with or get flu data from global sharing platforms FluNet and FluID since the Trump administration announced the U.S. exit from the World Health Organization.

The bottom line: There's a lot of respiratory virus still going around this season. If you haven't gotten the vaccine yet, it'd still be prudent to get one, experts urge.