Been awhile since I did a Flu season update.
I don't think we will see another "year of no Flu" unfortunately. Flu activity is still below baseline, but we are starting to see an increase in cases.
The predominant strain this season so far is Influenza A H3N2. That's one of the more severe seasonal strains unfortunately. The bad 2017-2018 Flu season was mostly H3N2. The Flu vaccine typically performs poorly against this strain as it tends to mutate more than other strains.
Flu season usually peaks anywhere from December to March, so a late season isn't out of the question. Keep in mind too due to the coronavirus pandemic we've seen some odd off-season surges in some viruses. While the Flu seems to have strong winter seasonality, seasonality for viruses is a poorly understood complex phenomenon.
Not too late to get the Flu vaccine. Even in years where it "misses" it reduces your risk of severe Flu. You'll start to get protection from the vaccine after about two weeks, so this would be an excellent time to get it. You can get the Flu vaccine simultaneously with the coronavirus vaccine as well. They don't interfere with each other.
We still are experiencing hospital strain from Delta and who knows what Omicron will do. You don't want to end up in the hospital with the Flu, or god forbid a co-infection with SARS-COV-2 and Flu amidst crowded hospitals.
