September 10, 2025

Will There Be a Flu Vaccine for 2025-2026?

You may have heard some uncertainty about whether there will be a flu vaccine this year.

Great news! There will be a new flu vaccine this year! In this blog, we will give you basic information about the flu vaccine and the flu illness. Please reach out to your primary care provider for more information. You can schedule an appointment for the flu vaccine with your primary care provider or a pharmacy.

Flu Season 2024–2025: What the Numbers Are Telling Us

Every year, the flu virus changes a little. Because of that, we make a new flu vaccine each year to try to match the latest version of the virus.

For the 2024-2025 flu season, in association with declining vaccination rates, there was a huge jump in flu illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths between the 2023-2024 season and the most recent 2024-2025 season. 

The Flu and Our Children

Doctors are also seeing more kids getting really sick from the flu. Even if there is not much flu activity right now, it does not mean we should wait to get protected. During the peak of the flu season this year, in just one month, flu-related hospital visits for children aged 5–17 increased by 145%.

In just the first half of 2025, the CDC reported 266 influenza-associated pediatric deaths during the last flu season, marking it as the highest number of child deaths during a flu season since they began recording influenza-associated pediatric deaths in 2004. As 2025 was projected to unfold, the number of influenza-associated pediatric deaths was expected to rise to 500. This illustrates that even now, getting the flu vaccine in advance of the flu season is important to lessen the severity of the flu, if not to protect you from getting it at all.

At the same time that fewer people are getting the flu vaccine than in past years, the number of people getting very sick from the flu is going up.

Fewer people are getting flu vaccines.

During the flu season 2023-2024, barely half (49.2%) of children ages 6 months through 17 years received the flu vaccine, about 14.5 percent less than the end of 2020. 

Figure 1 below illustrates this trend.

We know everyone has their own thoughts and questions about vaccines. Our goal is to share facts so that you can make the best choices for yourself and your family.

Myth Or Fact?

Have you ever gotten the flu shot and felt sick anyway? Maybe you even got the flu some time after the vaccine. Understandably, you may also have thought the flu vaccine doesn’t work after all. However, that is the biggest misconception about the vaccine!

The reason you may feel sick could be from side effects. Common side effects of the flu vaccine include soreness in your arm or at the injection site, fever, muscle aches, headaches, and fatigue. What is also important to note is that:

The flu vaccine does not prevent the flu, but it reduces the rate of deaths from the flu virus. 

In the 2023-2024 flu season, flu vaccines were linked to preventing nearly:

• 10 million illnesses
• 120,000 hospitalizations
• 7,900 deaths

What Does This Mean for the 2025-2026 Flu Season?

Don’t worry—flu shots are still available! Getting your flu vaccine each year is one way to help protect yourself and others from getting really sick.