Jack Tame: The intense winter flu surge

Author: Jack Tame ,
Publish Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2026, 10:25am

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“I’m afraid it’ll be quite a wait,” said the receptionist in the afterhours surgery.

It was Thursday early-afternoon. Hardly rush-hour by the standards of 24-hour medical centres, but there was barely a spare seat in the waiting room: a collage of sickly, grey faces. As we pulled into the carpark, an ambulance pulled out.

“And because you’ve tested positive,” said the receptionist.

“You’ll have to wait in your vehicle.”

All good. We figured as much. Depending on how you counted it, my poor wife was on day nine or ten of influenza A. The sinus infection compounding her misery is apparently a fairly common occurrence given how influenza depletes your immunity, but when you’re a week and half deep already, what’s a few more hours?

It’s not too clear how we got it in our house. it was clear when the nine-year-old first went down that he was out for the count. You know how we use the term ‘flu’ as a bit of a catch all? It was pretty bloody obvious this was the real thing.

You can tell a kid is really sick when they go quiet. It’s so hard to see it in someone you love. And honestly, a bit unsettling. The poor boy had no appetite. No thirst. No interest in taking anything that may soothe his brutal cough. He lay in bed one morning without so much as a book to keep him entertained. He didn’t want anything except for rest. When I came back and checked on him after half an hour or so, he was still awake, still clammy, but he’d barely moved.

I don’t know how I’ve avoided it. I’ve had a couple of brutal colds this winter including the one that took my voice on this show, three weeks ago. But though my wife and I had the same jab on the same day, she was wiped out by influenza A and somehow —touch wood— I’ve skated through so far. Watching her over this last week and a half has been a good reminder of why influenza can be so dangerous. We’re young and relatively fit and healthy. You can why so many people end up in hospital.

And so many of them are. It’s hard to keep up with the records being shattered as a result of this winter flu. Hato Hone St John has broken its daily record for 111 callouts several times. Their weekly callout records have been broken. Hospital ED presentations are higher than during Covid.

After she was triaged, my wife eventually saw the doctor. The doc was in full PPE, mask and gown, the Covid special. And for those few minutes we spent inside the clinic this week, we had a perfect little insight into the typical working environment that doctors and nurses and cleaners and receptionists and frontline medical staff around the country are exposed to every single day at the moment.

A baby screaming. People in the waiting room coughing up who-knows-what, exhausted, frustrated, impatient. A never-ending stream of patients needing triaging... the sick and the really sick.

I’ll be honest, I was in the building for all of ten minutes and I couldn’t wait to get out, but the doctor was so good humoured. So kind and efficient. So practical and pragmatic. In the absolute depths of the winter crush, she was bouncing from one patient to the next, knowing there’s no foreseeable moment when the backlog will be cleared. It could be like this for days or weeks, still. Knowing that all the time she and everyone else trying to help are inevitably risking their own health and being exposed to all sorts of horrid things.

It might sound trite, but to all of those health workers on the frontlines of this epic winter flu surge... We see you. We really, really appreciate you.