Northwell: Flu season could peak early, just before Thanksgiving

Flu season has started early and could peak just in time for Thanksgiving, Northwell Health officials said Tuesday.

About 5% of influenza tests from hospitals, physician’s offices, urgent care centers and other facilities in the region processed at Northwell Health Labs have tested positive so far this year, said Dr. Dwayne Breining, senior vice president of lab services.

"We were at about 1% or less in the last two years at this time," Breining said during an influenza briefing at North Shore University Hospital on Tuesday. "Generally, when we get up to 5%, we will be peaking about a month from now. That's a good two months earlier than the last couple of years."

Two seasons ago, lab-confirmed flu cases in New York State peaked at 54,834 in the week ending Feb. 1, 2025. Last season, it peaked the week ending Dec. 20 with 75,788. Experts said reported cases are only a portion of annual flu illnesses every year.

The majority of new cases reported for the week ending Oct. 17 were in New York City with 1,835, followed by Long Island with 584.

Infectious disease experts are concerned about the steady decline in the number of adults and children getting influenza vaccinations each year across the United States.

"Influenza is not a cold, it's a serious viral infection," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief public health and epidemiology officer at Northwell Health. "It mutates every year ... you need this shot every year. ... We are facing an enormous backlash of misinformation and anti-vaccine hesitancy all the time with vaccines now."

Lengthy hospitalization

Frank Bosco, of East Northport, said he'd never had an interest in receiving the flu vaccine. Then the 63-year-old fell ill with the flu, which developed into pneumonia earlier this year.

He was hospitalized for 116 days at Huntington Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital.

"We didn’t know if he was going to make it," said his wife, Theresa Bosco, 61, who became emotional while recalling his illness. The couple joined the briefing at North Shore to tell their story.

Thinking he just had a bad cold, Frank Bosco went to an urgent care center in January that tested him for the flu and COVID-19. The test was negative, so he went home with nasal spray and cough medicine.

"Four days later, I just didn’t get any better," he recalled.

Theresa Bosco checked his blood oxygen level, and it was down to 69%. Normal readings are between 95% and 100%.

Frank Bosco went to Huntington Hospital, where he continued to decline. He was transferred to Long Island Jewish Medical Center and placed on a ventilator, and he spent two months in a medically induced coma and placed on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, which took over the function of his heart and lungs.

His case of flu turned into a bad case of pneumonia, said Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, senior vice president of critical care services at Northwell Health.

"His oxygen levels were so low, all the other organs started to shut down," she explained. "His blood pressure was extremely low, his heart wasn't working so well ... he needed dialysis ... lots of invasive things needed to be done to keep him alive."

The family put up photos of Frank Bosco's young granddaughter and reminders of their youngest son’s upcoming wedding in his hospital rooms as inspiration for all of them.

"His lungs were so severely damaged that it was a possibility he might need a double lung transplant," said Theresa Bosco.

'Tough to come back'

On Valentine’s Day, she made the heartbreaking call to her children to come to the hospital because their father might not live through the night. Instead, his health took a turn for the better. He walked out of North Shore University Hospital on May 26.

Frank Bosco still needs respiratory therapy and has not been able to return to work at his masonry company. But he was able to dance at his son’s wedding this past week.

He now encourages everyone who is eligible to get their flu shots.

"You don’t want to get sick like I did," he said. "It’s very tough to come back."

Farber said currently 10 patients at North Shore are hospitalized due to influenza.

While the flu vaccine does not prevent most people from getting the flu, it is effective at preventing deaths, hospitalizations and serious illnesses, he said. Flu is estimated to kill about 25,000 people in the United States every year.

 While reporting has just started for the 2026-2027 flu season, statewide statistics are higher than in recent years during this time period.

The state reported 2,973 lab-confirmed cases for the week ending Oct. 10 and 3,526 the week ending Oct. 17. That's more than double the number of cases in the comparable weeks in 2024 and 2025.