NEWS BRIEFING: How severe is this flu season shaping up to be?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-05-07 00:01

Australia; NSW; VIC; QLD

Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

*****BRIEFING RECORDING AVAILABLE***** There have already been over 63,000 cases of flu reported in 2025, and the number of flu cases is tracking above the five-year average. But what does that mean for the coming flu season? Are we all just sick of getting vaccinated after the pandemic? Are we expecting a 'quademic' of flu, COVID-19, RSV and norovirus? Join this online briefing with leading winter virus and vaccine experts to ask these questions and more.

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

There have already been over 63,000 cases of flu reported in 2025, and the number of flu cases is tracking above the five-year average. But what does that mean for the coming flu season? Are we all just sick of getting vaccinated after the pandemic? Are we expecting a 'quademic' of flu, COVID-19, RSV and norovirus?

Join this online briefing with leading winter virus and vaccine experts to ask these questions and more.

The briefing will discuss the following issues:

Current flu season stats
An update on H5N1 bird flu risk in Australia
Influenza vaccination trends
Flu, COVID-19, RSV, norovirus – viruses to watch out for this winter

Speakers:

Professor Patrick Reading - Director of WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne
Professor Julie Leask – Professor of Public Health and Social Scientist, University of Sydney, Infectious Diseases Institute and Visiting Professorial Fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance
Professor Paul Griffin - Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in Brisbane and Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland Medical School

Attachments

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Briefing recording Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Briefing recording playback

Journal/
conference:

Organisation/s: The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS), The University of Queensland, Australian Science Media Centre

Funder: Conflicts of interest: CSL, a manufacturer of the seasonal influenza vaccine, is a supporter of the Australian Science Media Centre and contributes ~2% of the Centre's budget. See all our supporters and read about our independence. Professor Paul Griffin has been the principal investigator on a large number of vaccine trials, including multiple influenza vaccines. He has held industry advisory board roles, including with influenza vaccine manufacturers. Professor Julie Leask has received travel funding from Sanofi for an overseas conference on pertussis (whooping cough).

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