‘Surprised to be feeling so crummy’: Grandmother gets flu after 30-year streak amid intense U.S. outbreak
Dec 31, 2025, 12:31 PM
There has been an uptick in flu cases in the U.S., with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimating at least 7.5 million illnesses, 81,000 hospitalizations, and 3,100 deaths from the virus, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Peg Neal, a flu survivor, librarian, and KIRO producer Laura Scott’s grandmother, told “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio that she didn’t expect to be feeling so under the weather after decades of avoiding the illness.
“I am gradually feeling better, and I will say I did have the flu vaccine. I have not had the flu for maybe 25 to 30 years. So I was surprised to be feeling as crummy as I felt,” Peg said.
Only around 42% of adults and children have gotten a flu vaccine so far this year, The AP reported, citing the CDC.
While Peg didn’t have most of the usual flu symptoms, the nurse said the vaccine helped ease her illness.
“After two days of just deep, deep coughing, and basically when I wasn’t coughing, I was sleeping and missing all the holiday fun, I went to one of the urgent clinics, and I didn’t have most of the symptoms. It was mainly the cough and the fatigue. I didn’t have aches, I didn’t have the head cold. I had a very low fever, which disappeared after a day. So the nurse practitioner said that the vaccine definitely was helping, even though I had the flu,” she explained.
The AP explained the flu virus is constantly shape-shifting and that it comes in multiple forms. This season’s spike is being driven by a new variant known as “subclade K,” a mutation of one of the two Type A flu subtypes.
“I am a very healthy person, and I exercise, and I think I eat properly. And it’s been decades and decades since I’ve had the flu, so this is a bad year,” Peg said.
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
