"The ""Aussie flu"" is another name for the strain of H3N2 that hit Australia during the country's winter months in 2017. According to the Australia Government Department of Health, there were 233,453 confirmed cases of the flu and 745 flu-related deaths, which was a dramatic increase from the previous year. Australia's deadly flu season sparked concern that the US flu season would be equally bad if not worse. However, Fauci says that this is unlikely. ""Australia does not have as much broad protection against H3N2 as the US for two reasons: First, in Australia, they only give the flu vaccine to high-risk groups such as the elderly or health care workers. Second, Australia hadn't seen much of H3N2 before, so a lot of people had never been exposed,"" Fauci says. In the US, the CDC generally recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months gets the seasonal flu vaccine. The H3N2 subtype that hit Australia has been circulating in the US for years, so more of the population has developed at least some immunity. ""Although the flu is hitting this year with a vengeance, we are still likely to do better than Australia,"" Fauci says."
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