The flu is packing a wallop this season, but it’s not too late to fight it.

For staff at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, the short week back to work after the holidays was not just hectic, it was brutal. It started on Jan. 2 with a record-breaking 234 patients treated in one day, the most in the hospital’s 84-year history. Two days later, CHOMP saw its busiest day ever in the emergency department, with 71 patients seen at one time. It’s due to a particularly bad flu season, which started in October, a month early.

“This is one of the worst flu seasons I’ve seen in 15 years of clinical practice,” says Dr. Sameer Bakhda, medical director of CHOMP’s emergency department.

Two people under the age of 65 have died from flu in Monterey County so far this season, the county Health Department reported on Jan. 8. (Officials do not track those over age 65; they say tracking younger victims gives them an idea of the severity of flu strains.) Three people under age 65 have been admitted to intensive care units, and local hospitals are reporting that hospitalizations for flu are significantly higher than normal across all ages.

Despite reports that there are shortages of vaccines and antiviral medicines in California, two doctors from the California Department of Public Health said in a Jan. 9 conference call with reporters that no such shortages exist. As to reports that this season’s vaccine is less effective against strains now circulating, they said any vaccination will protect people from the worst symptoms, and could shorten the duration of the illness. They encouraged everyone age 6 months and older to get a flu shot, even this late in the season, because it could linger until May.

A FREE FLU VACCINE CLINIC happens in Salinas on Jan. 13