Yes, seasonal flu shots are still available, and no, it’s not too late to get yours. But you’d be forgiven for being confused, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has halted one of its educational flu vaccine campaigns.
The agency’s Wild to Mild initiative, launched at the start of the 2023–24 flu season, aimed to inform the public that while getting immunized against the flu doesn’t guarantee you won’t catch an influenza virus, it can protect you from severe illness, hospitalization, and death. With the catchphrase “A flu vaccine can take flu from wild to mild,” the campaign’s marketing materials featured hulking, wild animals juxtaposed against domesticated, sometimes stuffed, counterparts, such as a blowfish versus a goldfish. Wild to Mild targeted high-risk groups in particular, including children and pregnant people, whose vaccination rates had suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ditched the campaign Feb. 19, as first reported by NPR. That is, six days after the Senate confirmed outspoken vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trump’s health secretary. National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases leaders broke the news to CDC staff following an HHS review of the campaign, NPR reported.
The death of Wild to Mild also coincides with the worst flu season the nation has seen in nearly 30 years. The percentage of outpatient and emergency department visits involving patients with influenza-like illness hit 7.79% the week ended Feb. 8—the highest percentage recorded since at least the 1997–98 flu season, CDC records show. The previous high was during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic: 7.72% the week ended Oct. 24, 2009.
View this interactive chart on Fortune.com
For more on the flu:
- Experts warn flu season hasn’t peaked yet, and will get worse before it gets better
- The U.S. is battling its worst flu season in at least 28 years. Here are the latest symptoms and where cases are skyrocketing
- Do you have the flu? Watch out for these 2025 symptoms, from mild to emergency
- Public health experts are warning of a ‘quad-demic’ this winter. Here’s where flu, COVID, RSV, and norovirus are spreading
- New flu shots have arrived. Here’s the best time to get your annual vaccine
