The mildest since COVID-19? Top flu expert’s predictions for the 2025 season
Professor Ian Barr urges GPs to prepare for another early season but is hopeful for a lower peak.
Falling GP flu vaccinations and a streak of early seasons show the importance of fast and widespread immunisation when 2025 stocks arrive, says a top influenza expert.
Despite a record-breaking 365,000 influenza cases reported last year, GP flu vaccinations fell from 5.8 million in 2023 to 5.1 million in 2024, according to medical virologist Professor Ian Barr.
Pharmacy doses increased by 81,000, but GPs could “not rely on pharmacies to pick up the slack”, said Professor Barr, the deputy director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza in Melbourne.
He added that the 2024 season had started in April in NSW and Victoria, about a month earlier than the historical average.
