Respiratory Season 2025: What Communities and Agencies Need to Know

Nearly six years into the COVID-19 era, respiratory season has taken on a different weight. What was once a predictable winter rhythm — flu shots, hand-washing reminders, the occasional outbreak — now means managing several simultaneous viral threats — COVID-19, influenza, and RSV — against a backdrop of deep public fatigue. The 2025-26 season presents challenges that are by now familiar but no less urgent: waning population immunity, updated vaccine formulations for both COVID-19 and influenza, and a public that is more skeptical of public health messaging than at any point in recent memory.

The dual-threat landscape

COVID-19 variants continue to evolve, and updated 2025–26 COVID-19 vaccines — reformulated to target the JN.1-lineage LP.8.1 strain — are available alongside reformulated influenza vaccines and expanded RSV protection for older adults and infants. The guidance itself has also changed: federal recommendations now frame COVID-19 vaccination as an individual decision made with a health care provider, while annual flu vaccination remains recommended for everyone six months and older. The good news is that the science continues to advance. The harder truth is that uptake remains uneven. Surveillance data have documented for years what equity-focused researchers have long observed: older adults, immunocompromised individuals, and communities of color bear a disproportionate burden. CDC analyses of more than a decade of influenza seasons found that Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Hispanic adults were hospitalized at higher rates than white adults — while receiving flu vaccines at lower rates. These are not new findings, but they demand renewed attention every season because the consequences are measured in lives.

Communication fatigue is real

Perhaps the greatest obstacle facing public health agencies this season is not the virus itself but the challenge of reaching communities that have tuned out. Years of emergency messaging, shifting guidance, and politicized discourse have taken a measurable toll. Research on message fatigue shows that repeated health communications lose effectiveness over time, particularly when audiences perceive inconsistency or feel that messaging does not reflect their lived experience. Surveys show trust in public health institutions has declined since the pandemic, and the erosion matters most in the communities that need accurate information most. Evidence from behavioral science suggests that in low-trust environments, the messenger matters more than the message. Credibility is built through relationship, not repetition.

What works: lessons from the field

The most effective respiratory season campaigns over the past three years share common features. They rely on trusted messengers — community health workers, faith leaders, local clinic providers, and neighborhood advocates — rather than institutional spokespeople. They use culturally and linguistically tailored materials developed with community input, not simply translated from English. And they meet people where they already are: pharmacies, schools, community centers, and places of worship. Programs that embed vaccine access into existing community touchpoints are especially well suited to reaching uninsured and undocumented residents who may never walk into a traditional clinic.

Guidance for agencies

For public health agencies planning fall and winter outreach, the evidence points toward several practical priorities. Invest in sustained community engagement rather than one-time campaigns that spike around October and fade by December. Fund and support trusted messenger networks year-round so that relationships are already in place when respiratory season arrives. Co-design materials with the communities you intend to serve. Make access as frictionless as possible — mobile clinics, extended pharmacy hours, and no-cost options reduce the barriers that disproportionately affect low-income residents. Finally, communicate with honesty about what vaccines can and cannot do. Overpromising erodes the very trust you are trying to rebuild.

Respiratory season is no longer a single-threat event, and our response strategies cannot be either. Equity-centered, community-driven approaches are not aspirational — they are the baseline for effective public health practice.