Queensland is in the midst of a health crisis as flu cases put pressure on the health system and authorities have launched crisis talks over a shortage of hospital beds.
The number of residents hospitalized with flu surpassed the number of patients admitted with Covid for the first time this year.
Queensland Health figures show 257 people were hospitalised with flu as of last Sunday – five more than had Covid – and more than 80 per cent of hospital admissions for flu are patients who have not been vaccinated.
In the past week, 5,674 people were diagnosed with flu, compared to 1,603 Covid cases, and there have already been 37 deaths from flu this winter.
Of the influenza cases, 1,521 occurred in school-age children, 630 cases in preschool-age children and 644 cases in people over 65 years of age.
Infectious disease expert Dr Paul Griffin said the number of flu cases was overwhelming the health system and there had been “crisis meetings over a lack of beds (as) our hospitals are congested”.
“It’s one of our lowest years for uptake of the (flu) vaccine, which is a little bit disappointing,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We lobbied hard to get early funding for the vaccine for everyone, and the government, to its credit, did that.
Queensland is in the midst of a flu crisis as flu cases strain the health system and authorities launch crisis talks over a shortage of hospital beds (pictured, Surfers Paradise)
‘In Queensland, at the moment, it’s free for everyone who is eligible. But despite that, we’ve seen quite low uptake.
“And in the context of the numbers we’re seeing right now and the impact on the health care system, that’s pretty disappointing,” he said.
Dr. Griffin said the lower-than-expected vaccination numbers are due to a few different factors.
“We’ve been focusing a lot on Covid in recent years (we’ve also asked a lot of people to try to mitigate its spread) and I think there’s an element of fatigue and frustration with a lot of those measures.”
He said some people have lost sight of the importance of the flu.
‘We’ve been hearing so much about Covid numbers and their impact that people may have forgotten that flu exists and is a very important viral infection in its own right.
‘Misinformation about vaccination and its benefits and safety has also spread to other vaccines outside of Covid.
Dr. Griffin said people are thinking, “What’s the point? I wouldn’t get that vaccine. It wouldn’t stop me from getting it anyway.”
But he said that’s the wrong way to look at it.
“We know the vaccine is not perfect. It doesn’t necessarily prevent you from getting the flu,” he said.
‘But what it does do is significantly alter its trajectory and reduce the likelihood of suffering a more severe illness and requiring hospitalization, for example.
Dr Griffin said the lower than expected vaccination numbers were due to a few different factors (pictured, an Australian healthcare worker dressed in PPE)
“We know that the vaccine does a great job in that regard.”
He added that “if our vaccination rates are low, then we have a population that is more susceptible to progressing to those more significant manifestations, requiring hospitalization and potentially even not surviving.”
All the additional hospitalizations of unvaccinated people are putting enormous pressure on the health system.
“The challenge is that our health care system is essentially operating at maximum capacity at the beginning, so if you add to that additional challenges, it becomes difficult,” Dr. Griffin said.
‘And right now, with high numbers of flu hospitalizations (and) significant numbers of people hospitalized with Covid and some other unique challenges, it’s put significant pressure on our health care system…
“There are basically no (hospital) beds anywhere in south-east Queensland.”
Epidemiologist Catherine Bennett also told Daily Mail Australia that “it is worrying that we have seen a drop in flu vaccinations.”
She said part of the slow uptake of vaccines was because “there were warnings early on that it wasn’t as serious as people perhaps expected.”
‘So if that’s usually an incentive for people to think about going to get vaccinated in April or May, maybe they left it a little bit to the last minute this year.
“But we may be paying the price for it. It’s been a pretty nasty flu season across the country.”
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