Ruined holidays & crowded ERs: Kansas Citians call this flu season worst ever
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- CDC reports flu levels highest in 25 years; Subclade K drives surge.
- Kansas City ERs swamped; staff triage and delay lower‑priority flu cases.
- Health officials urge vaccination, testing and home care to limit hospitalizations.
Chris Alldaffer’s symptoms began on Dec. 22. It felt like run-of-the-mill flu. Sore body. Scratchy throat. Stiff neck. But his symptoms ramped up daily, and by Christmas day he was in a local emergency room with an unrelenting temperature that kept spiking at 105.
A flu test revealed the Belton, Missouri dad had the latest influenza strain called Subclade K that’s causing a troublesome and significant uptick in flu cases in Kansas City and across the country.
It has earned a nickname on social media: “Super flu.”
It’s “a weird sickness going around in the Midwest, bro,” said one KC influencer who stressed about it on TikTok.
“I was weak, dizzy, disoriented, cold and hot sweats for the next week,” Alldaffer told The Star this week. “Everyone in my household had it at this point but no one went to the ER since I went and we knew what it was. My kids got over it in about a week. However, my wife and I still have it.
“Yes, it’s pretty rough and honestly the sickest I think I’ve ever been ... we call it our unwelcome Christmas guest that refuses to leave.”
This week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this flu season is already worse than last year and has reached the highest levels of illness seen in 25 years.
At this point nearly every state, including Kansas and Missouri, has hit high or very high levels of flu activity, the CDC reports.
“It’s not your imagination — flu cases are rising fast,” The University of Kansas Health System posted on Facebook late last week. “We’re seeing more infections and hospitalizations across all of our campuses in the Greater Kansas City metro.”
Kansas City is staring at a couple of uncomfortable months ahead as the annual flu season races toward a headline-making peak.
“Oh my gosh. Citywide, our emergency department volumes, which then translates to our hospital volumes, are through the roof right now with influenza,” said Dr. Marc Larsen, an emergency medicine physician at Saint Luke’s. “I mean ... it’s a problem when we get inundated with patients with respiratory complaints.
“And I know we say every year this season is bad, but it is. And I don’t think we’ve peaked yet either. Starting the new year, often times it doesn’t peak for the next several weeks.
“We’re just getting back after the Christmas break, which is when people congregated with family, and are now getting the kids back in school, which tells you that that’s when people will start spreading it around even more. So we tend to see these spikes after holiday breaks and when kids get back in school.
“I’m sure it’s going to continue on for the next several weeks at high levels ... you never know when you’re at the peak until it starts to come down. And we’re definitely not on the way down.”
Kansas Citians sharing their symptoms online say it’s miserable out there.
“I had this flu. My throat has never hurt as much as this round. Grateful I’m better now. Worst case of flu in my 60 years.”
“A friend of mine called it razor blade throat.”
“May those laughing not infect innocent people. 104* fever WITHOUT BREAKING for a week, bone crushing body pain, non-stop coughing, throats like glass, it etc ... nothing funny.”
The flu came crashing down on Holly Cole’s family on Christmas Day when her husband began having symptoms. So he stayed behind in Kansas City while she and the kids went to Nebraska to celebrate.
But by the next morning, Cole’s two young sons “were feeling awful and we ended up having to drive back home. It was a big bummer,” said Cole, a stay-at-home mom in the Northland.
“The symptoms hit out of nowhere. One minute my son was playing and being silly with my daughter, and the next he was crying because he felt sick. My daughter and I got symptoms a couple of days after that.
“My boys are 11 and 9 and had high fevers of 104 — lots of coughing, congestion and even both threw up in the early stages of it. They were miserable. Very tired ... didn’t even want to open their Christmas presents.
“All three of my kids had fevers for five to seven days which is crazy to me.”
By Day 10, one of her children had developed an ear infection, another had a sinus infection.
Cole, who described her family as “pretty healthy,” said they had the flu “a few years ago and I don’t remember it being this bad. I would say this is even worse than when we had COVID during the pandemic.”
Should you go to the ER?
Tis the viral season, “and we’re seeing an increase in flu-related visits,” said Dr. Shelley DeLong, an emergency medicine physician at NKC Health.
“Influenza A is the predominant strain at this time. Based on available data, the severity of illness appears to be moderate overall. That said, we are still early in the cold and flu season, so it will take more time to fully assess trends in severity.
“It’s also important to remember that influenza circulates seasonally. Because most people experience it only once a year — or less — it can feel especially severe when it hits, even if the virus itself is not significantly different from prior seasons.”
In a Facebook discussion a few days ago, one Kansas City ER physician said flu patients flooding local emergency departments right now are waiting hours only to be told yes, you have the flu, and here’s what to do at home.
Some people go to the emergency room wanting antibiotics, but the flu is a virus and antibiotics don’t work on them.
“Not everyone with flu symptoms needs to go to the emergency room,” said DeLong.
So when should you head to the ER?
“It’s kind of an individual question for each person, but the main reasons to visit an emergency department — especially over an urgent care, walk-in or a video visit — is if you’re feeling like you’re really, really struggling with life essentials like breathing, you feel like you’re having a really hard time breathing, you can’t catch your breath,” said Larsen.
“If you’re having severe chest pains. Those are the things you would really want to come to the emergency department for.
“The majority of people that get influenza, they feel horrible ... but the biggest concern you have with influenza is developing pneumonia or becoming essentially to the point where you’re having a hard time breathing.”
A few other red flags to watch for: confusion, inability to keep liquids down, dehydration, feeling faint or like you might pass out and rapidly worsening symptoms like the persistent fever that sent Alldaffer to the ER.
“If someone checks their oxygen level at home and it is below 90%, they should be evaluated in the ER,” said DeLong.
If you take your flu symptoms to the ER, said Larsen, “most of the time you’re going to get triaged, everybody gets triaged to a different level based on your initial assessment, your vital signs.
“Unfortunately right now, because of the severity of the flu season, we’re just a busy city right now. ... If your vital signs are stable, if your oxygen levels are OK, you’re going to get triaged to a little lower level so you’re going to sit there, unfortunately, you’re going to wait and people get frustrated if they’ve been waiting a long time.
“But we have a finite number of resources in order to care for the community and we have to do that based on the sickest patients. So though you feel horrible with influenza, most of the time people are not super sick.”
That’s why he encourages people to seek care somewhere else first — a virtual visit, urgent care, walk-in clinics.
“And I don’t want to discourage people from coming if they need us,” Larsen said. “We will get people seen. But the volumes in the EDs — and this is not unique to St. Luke’s — are a citywide problem.”
How to get better at home
In most cases, the body’s immune system will fight the flu on its own. For people who are otherwise healthy, most flu illnesses can be managed at home with rest and fluids, family physician Dr. Erin Corriveau, medical director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, told The Star.
Over-the-counter flu tests are available at pharmacies. Some check for both influenza and COVID-19, while others specifically test for Influenza A and B, said Corriveau.
“These tests tend to be most accurate during the first two to three days of illness,” she said. “Regardless of whether you test, if you do need to leave the house while sick, wearing a mask helps protect others.”
But “in many cases, testing is not required. If you have been in close contact with someone who tested positive for the flu and then develop symptoms yourself, it is reasonable to assume you have the flu,” Corriveau said.
Larsen, too, said you can skip the flu test.
“My family, I’ve got three children of grade-school age and a wife who is also in health care and we’ve probably had what we call influenza-like illness with cough, congestion, some body aches ... we had that a few weeks ago but we didn’t test anybody,” he said.
“Because there’s really, for my demographic, otherwise healthy, middle-aged, and school-aged children, there’s really no treatment that is going to be dramatically beneficial for those people that have influenza.”
The flu. COVID. Any viral infection this time of year will be managed the same, he said. “And it’s stay home drinking plenty of fluids, using over-the-counter cough and cold medications, Tylenol, ibuprofen, then letting the disease run its course.”
That said, “some people are at higher risk for severe complications and should seek medical care early if they develop symptoms,” said Corriveau.
“Certain groups are at higher risk for complications from the flu, including people who are immunocompromised, older adults, premature infants and individuals with chronic medical conditions,” Corriveau said.
“These patients should pay especially close attention to their symptoms and seek care sooner if they are concerned.”
Too late for a flu shot?
A “dramatic rise” in influenza, pertussis (whooping cough) and measles cases across the country, blamed partially on declining vaccination rates, caused the regional public health consortium of 11 metro-area health departments last month to urge residents to get vaccinated.
“Vaccination is our most effective defense against these diseases,” Darrell Meinke, director of the Clay County Health Center, said in the group’s statement. “With rising cases of flu, pertussis and measles, especially among unvaccinated individuals, now is the time for our community to act.”
The CDC still, for the moment at least, recommends an annual flu shot for anyone 6 months of age and older because it’s the “best way to reduce the risk from flu and its potentially serious complications,” the agency says on its website.
They’re “widely available at local health departments, pharmacies and medical clinics, and getting vaccinated now can still provide meaningful protection,” Corriveau said.
“I would encourage anybody that has not had the flu shot to go out and get one, especially if you’re in one of those high-risk populations,” said Larsen.
He’s been building an informal, private database at work by asking every patient who tests positive for the flu if they’ve had the shot. “And I would bet 95% of patients I’ve seen in the ER are not vaccinated for influenza this year,” he said.
The flu shot is not perfect, Larsen said. For instance, the new flu strain, Subclade K, is a rapidly changing mutation of the A(H3N2) influenza virus that is the most frequently reported virus this season.
Doctors acknowledge this year’s flu jab might not be a perfect match for this new mutation, but stress the vaccine can still help prevent serious symptoms.
Larsen has heard people say, “every time I get the shot I get the flu.”
“Well, that might be what you feel,” Larsen said. “But you don’t know how many times you’ve avoided it and how less-severe your symptoms have been because of the fact you have protection against the severity of the disease.”
There never has been a fancy way to treat the flu. Rest. Fluids. Repeat.
And that little hack we learned during the pandemic — keep washing your hands! — remains one of the best ways to prevent getting it.
“Most patients diagnosed with the flu are advised to rest, drink plenty of fluids and avoid work, school and social activities until they have been fever-free for at least 24 to 48 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications,” said Corriveau.
Over-the-counter medications such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen are recommended — as long as there are no medical reasons you can’t take them — to help manage fever, body aches or congestion
“For cough and throat irritation, my favorite and one of the best natural cough suppressants is warm tea with honey,” said DeLong.
Chris Alldaffer in Belton, who got sick two weeks ago, decided to stay away from his federal job in downtown Kansas City for one more week.
“I am not contagious anymore but I don’t feel like I have the strength yet to commute downtown and sit in my cubicle for 10 hours a day,” he said. “I also didn’t want to force my coworkers to have to sit next to me all day worrying if they’ll catch it from me.
“I still get out of breath easily and have no energy. Congestion is still pretty bad and the coughing is relentless still. I do feel better now, but I think the cough and congestion is going to stick around for another week or so. At its worse I had never felt so sick in my 50 years of life.
“I see the people online laughing at this, and I can promise you that they’d find nothing to laugh at if they catch this.”
This story was originally published January 8, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
.jpg)