With a cold front on the way, flu cases are jumping in Florida

A certified medical assistant holds a syringe for a flu vaccine at a clinic in Seattle, on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Lindsey Wasson / AP)As flu cases rise in Florida, health officials are telling people it's not too late to get vaccinated.And ahead of an expected cold front, one metric shows there’s a need for people to heed that call.The Walgreens Flu Index uses flu testing data, prescription figures, and over-the-counter cold and flu medicine purchases to show how bad the situation is on a 0-to-10 scaleFlorida's most recent score is 6.35. That's compared to a 3.6 national score.It’s also the third worst state score in the country, trailing only Washington and Hawaii.Benjamin Anderson, a professor with the University of Florida Department of Environmental and Global Health, said the spike has to do with cooler weather, as well as more face-to-face contact.“We typically will see the majority of influenza cases happening in late December to early January, but it does fluctuate year t