Officials urge vaccination as Oregon's flu numbers rise

By the numbers: Influenza test positivity rates had jumped to 31.5% for the week ending Dec. 28, per the state's most recent numbers, and 146 were in the hospital between Dec. 22 and Dec. 28.

• That's up from numbers in the "single digits" about a month ago, according to Dawn Nolt, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland.
• Two children in the Portland area have died because of the virus.

State of play: This all comes as flu vaccination rates in Oregon were down 4% compared with this time last year, per state data, and down 10% from the same time two years ago.

• Oregon also had the highest number of cases of whooping cough — another respiratory illness for which there is a vaccine — since 1950 last year, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

Yes, but: Nolt said that the state is not facing a tripledemic like last year — when influenza, COVID and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, all peaked at the same time.

• "That's partly because COVID is much lower now than we've seen, and RSV is also a bit low," Nolt told Axios. "The big virus out there is flu."

What they're saying: Nolt acknowledged that the efficacy of flu vaccines can vary from year to year but told Axios that even if it's "as low as 30% or as high as 70%, it's better than zero if you're not vaccinated."