With the holiday season around the corner, the American Automobile Association projected that 81.8 million Americans will be traveling more than 50 miles from home during Thanksgiving week 2025, making it the busiest travel week of the year.
The spike in travel coincides with the rising severity of flu season, which runs from October to May, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. As travelers prepare to visit family for the holidays, public health officials recommend a number of precautions to minimize the spread of flu and other illnesses.
Flu and Covid trends
The CDC reported that 2024 was the most severe influenza season since 2017–18.
"National preliminary burden estimates suggest that influenza virus infections resulted in at least 43 million symptomatic illnesses, 19 million medical visits, 560,000 hospitalizations, and 38,000 deaths," the CDC reported. "These findings reinforce the critical importance of annual influenza vaccination, timely antiviral treatment, and robust surveillance systems to mitigate the public health impact of influenza."
Cases in Michigan are increasing this season. According to the Michigan Flu Focus, a weekly surveillance report for statewide influenza cases, there were 1,538 patient visits to health clinics for influenza-like illness by the week of Nov. 8, 2025. That is 281 cases up from the previous week's total. There were 112 cases reported in Southeast Michigan alone that week.
COVID-19 cases are trending lower in Michigan, according to the state's Department of Health and Human Services. There were 114 hospital admissions for COVID-19 in the week of Nov. 15, down 109 from a slight peak of 223 admissions during the week of Oct. 20.
A new flu variant
A new strain of the flu, referred to as subclade K, was detected in Canada this year. A group of Canadian researchers, including epidemiologists from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control in Vancouver, published an early flu outlook in October, projecting that the new variant would dominate the 2025-26 flu season. The report was published in the Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada.
The danger of this new variant, the report explained, is that the current rollout of vaccines was not designed to fight it. So, the researchers recommended increased scrutiny and testing of flu patients.
The CDC has not yet made any official reports on subclade K in the U.S.
Staying vaccinated for the holidays
As the holidays and a busy travel season approach, the CDC recommends that "travelers who wish to reduce risk for influenza should consider vaccination, preferably more than a week before departure."
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported that 30% of Washtenaw County residents are vaccinated for influenza as of Nov. 20, 2025, and 16% are vaccinated for COVID-19.
Eastern Michigan University held its own walk-in flu shot clinic Nov. 17, 2025, with the help of the EMU Trinity Health facility. Trinity Health provided the vaccines. About 100 students and faculty received shots at the clinic from one of the nursing student volunteers who participated.
Those without health insurance had their costs covered by the EMU Student Government, Michell Rich said. Rich is the administrative secretary for the university's Student Affairs department.
The timing of this clinic and the one held in late September was no coincidence, Rich said. The university holds these events right before school breaks, when students are expected to travel.
Students can schedule vaccine appointments on the Trinity Health website.
