Three leading public health and social psychology experts have warned that many countries, including the UK, are failing to apply vital lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic as influenza cases surge. In the UK, hospitals are facing mounting winter pressures.
Similarly, the U.S. has seen the number of influenza cases climb significantly in December, coming after the most severe flu season since 2018. There have been an estimated 7.5 million influenza cases and 81,000 hospitalizations (as of the end of December 2025).
The three experts have written to the British Medical Journal. They are Professors Stephen Reicher (University of St Andrews), Martin McKee (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), and Stephen Griffin (University of Leeds). The three academics argue that simple, proven measures of vaccination, isolation, and ventilation are being neglected, leaving the public vulnerable as flu spreads.
The experts call for a layered approach to infection control, combining vaccination, isolation, ventilation, masks, and hygiene.
“There are important differences in who and how flu hits,” says Professor Griffin in a statement sent to Digital Journal. “But we trivialise those differences at our peril. The lessons we learnt during COVID still apply.”
However, uptake of the flu vaccine remains poor. By late November, only 40% of under‑65s at risk had received the jab, compared to 70% of over‑65s, pregnant women, and young children.
“Vaccines aren’t perfect, but at scale they keep schools open and hospitals coping,” Griffin adds.
Both the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend yearly vaccination for nearly all people over the age of six months, especially those at high risk.
The flu jab works by injecting each individual with a tiny amount of an inactive flu virus. In response to this, the body’s immune system makes proteins called antibodies to help fight what it thinks is an infection.
Isolation is another key factor. Many workers cannot afford to stay home when sick. UK statutory sick pay remains under £120 a week, far below Germany’s eight weeks of full salary.
“Telling people to isolate is a suggestion, not a practical response, unless government support is provided,” explains McKee.
Ventilation is the third pillar. Despite calls for investment in clean air systems in schools, offices, and public buildings, little has changed.
“We hoped COVID would make clean air central to the 21st century as clean water was to the 20th. That hope has failed,” clarifies Reicher.
The experts stress that winter pressures demand more than individual responsibility. Governments must institute support measures that make it possible for people to do the right thing.
“The challenge isn’t knowing what to do,” Reicher concludes. “It’s making it possible for everyone to do it. Governments must act to support responsible behaviour, or schools will close, hospitals will be overwhelmed, and lives will be lost.”
The supporting article ‘Vaccinate, Isolate, Ventilate: will we ever learn the lessons from COVID?’ is published in the in the British Medical Journal (free to view).
