Flu outbreak is causing a deadly children’s brain illness: What you should know

As vaccine-denier, conspiracy theorist and science-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes control of the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, many doctors are sounding the alarm about several U.S. public health crises — a flu season that’s the most intense in more than a decade; measles outbreaks; and a simmering bird flu that, if it mutates and can be spread human-to-human, could make “COVID look like a walk in the park.”

And there’s another illness — linked to the flu but dangerously unreported — that is leading to tragic outcomes in children.

Dr. Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota, in an appearance on Deadline: White House with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, warned that the flu has sparked “a serious condition called acute necrotizing encephalitis,” and that the Center for Disease Control, under orders from President Donald Trump, has not released critical information about it.

“Right now in this country, there is a major challenge occurring with children developing influenza and then developing a condition called acute necrotizing encephalitis,” Osterholm said. “Have you seen a word come out of the CDC about this? They’ve been prohibited from even putting this kind of information out. This is critical information for parents to know.

“This is a serious brain complication of influenza infection for which there are many cases out there right now occurring, parents should know about this. So if they have children who have these signs and symptoms, get them into the hospital, or at least the emergency room, as soon as possible. That’s the kind of thing that is very, very hard for us … where we know we can do things to make it better, and we’re not given that opportunity.”

Osterholm listed the symptoms.

“Your children have influenza-like symptoms to begin with,” he said. “That’s how it starts — the fever, the muscle aches, the chills. But then there’s a certain lethargy. Meaning [there is a] certain tiredness, a lack of consciousness, where it’s very hard to arouse the children. Those are the symptoms, and when they appear, you need to seek medical care immediately.”

Pediatric deaths, possibly linked to vaccine denying, “are climbing dramatically in this country with this flu season,” Osterholm said. “Parents need to understand those and [the Trump CDC is] not [publicizing] that right now. We’re not sharing that with them. And I think that’s a huge, huge mistake.

“We know anecdotally that there are situations around the country where we have 12 children hospitalized in Boston, 10 children hospitalized at Stanford and many other locations around the country, and the media is not covering it, and nor is CDC. And this is something we can do something about, if parents understand this is occurring now and get their children in early. This surely can be a major step in helping to reduce the risk of serious illness and deaths.”

New York Times Health Policy reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, also appearing in the segment, said she is concerned about “a bird flu outbreak that could be very, very serious.”

“We’ve just seen the first death in the United States, someone who had severe bird flu,” she said. “Right now, the CDC says the risk to the general population is low, but if that virus mutates and starts spreading person to person, we are going to see a situation that makes COVID look like a walk in the park.”

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