Yes, seasonal flu shots are still available, and no, it’s not too late to get yours. But you’d be forgiven for being confused, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has halted one of its educational flu vaccine campaigns.
The agency’s Wild to Mild initiative, launched at the start of the 2023–24 flu season, aimed to inform the public that while getting immunized against the flu doesn’t guarantee you won’t catch an influenza virus, it can protect you from severe illness, hospitalization, and death. With the catchphrase “A flu vaccine can take flu from wild to mild,” the campaign’s marketing materials featured hulking, wild animals juxtaposed against domesticated, sometimes stuffed, counterparts, such as a blowfish versus a goldfish. Wild to Mild targeted high-risk groups in particular, including children and pregnant people, whose vaccination rates had suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ditched the campaign Feb. 19, as first reported by NPR. That is, six days after the Senate confirmed outspoken vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases leaders broke the news to CDC staff following an HHS review of the campaign, NPR reported.
The death of Wild to Mild also coincides with the worst flu season the nation has seen in nearly 30 years. The percentage of outpatient and emergency department visits involving patients with influenza-like illness hit 7.79% the week ended Feb. 8—the highest percentage recorded since at least the 1997–98 flu season, CDC records show. The previous high was during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic: 7.72% the week ended Oct. 24, 2009.
During the 2024–25 season alone, the flu has contributed to 29 million illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations, and 16,000 deaths, nearly 70 of them children, the CDC says. As of the week ended Feb. 8, the agency has classified the current season as a high-severity season for all age groups—for the first time since 2017–18.
It’s no coincidence that this intense season corresponds to low flu vaccine uptake, says Dr. Robert Hopkins Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). Ideally, under the CDC’s Healthy People initiative, at least 70% of the U.S. population would have been vaccinated by now. Yet less than half of adults (45%) and children (46%) had been immunized as of the week ended Feb. 8. Meanwhile, laboratory-confirmed flu cases reached a season-high positivity rate of 31.6%.
“It is unfortunate that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wild to Mild campaign has been removed from the website,” Hopkins said in an emailed statement to Fortune. “This CDC campaign is a creative and effective way of conveying the extremely important public health message about ‘partial protection’ versus ‘complete prevention’ of disease.”
Hopkins added, “NFID supports efforts to increase awareness about the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe illness, especially among those at higher risk.”
Flu vaccine prevented nearly 8,000 deaths last season
Just because the campaign has come to a formal end doesn’t mean public health professionals will cease to utilize it. Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says he’ll still share the Wild to Mild message.
“It educates people about the main benefit of influenza vaccine in a catchy, easy-to-understand way,” he tells Fortune. “Anything we can do to persuade more people to receive the flu vaccine is a good thing.”
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Immunization not only saves lives but also eases the burden on the nation’s health care system. During the 2023–24 season, the CDC says the flu vaccine prevented:
- 9.8 million illnesses
- 4.8 million medical visits
- 120,000 hospitalizations
- 7,900 deaths
Spring may be on the horizon, but there’s still time to protect yourself.
“If you have not already received your flu shot, I would strongly encourage you to get vaccinated,” Hopkins urges. “It is not too late to reduce your risk for influenza and influenza-related complications.”
For more on the flu:
- Experts warn flu season hasn’t peaked yet, and will get worse before it gets better
- The U.S. is battling its worst flu season in at least 28 years. Here are the latest symptoms and where cases are skyrocketing
- Do you have the flu? Watch out for these 2025 symptoms, from mild to emergency
- Public health experts are warning of a ‘quad-demic’ this winter. Here’s where flu, COVID, RSV, and norovirus are spreading
- New flu shots have arrived. Here’s the best time to get your annual vaccine
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