Is Flu Different This Winter?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the number of people in hospital with the flu has risen by more than half this week.
Doctors say an earlier start to the flu season plus an unexpected mutation in this years primary strain has led to a lower rate of immunity amongst the general public for this time of year.
BBC health editor Hugh Pym and Doctor Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist from the UK Health Security Agency breakdown the data.
Plus, US forces have seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela in an escalation of the US government’s pressure campaign against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
The news came as Venezuelan opposition leader MarĂa Corina Machado collected her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, appearing despite a travel ban and a threat from the Venezuelan government that she would be labelled as a fugitive
BBC News presenter, Lucy Hockings and Latin America editor for BBC Online Vanessa Buschschlüter explain the situation in Venezuela and the story behind Miss Machado’s journey to Oslo.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, it's that time of the year where everyone says, oh, everyone's coughing and spluttering and off sick from work. There's a lot of it going about. |
| 0:13.2 | Normally, I'm quite sceptical because that's anecdotes rather than data. But today, NHS England said we are facing an unprecedented situation with flu. |
| 0:23.5 | We will dig into the details about what makes it so unprecedented on this episode of Newscast. |
| 0:29.2 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 0:31.6 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. |
| 0:34.5 | I was the tattle tail in the class. |
| 0:35.8 | Can I have an apology, please? |
| 0:37.1 | I trust |
| 0:37.6 | almost nobody. Then daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel |
| 0:43.3 | delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. |
| 0:49.2 | Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio, and health bosses in England are warning of the the worst case scenario for this time of year for flu and the NHS, at least in England. |
| 1:00.1 | They are quoting figures for the number of patients in hospital with flu in England each day last week, which was 2,660. |
| 1:08.9 | That is up 55% on the week before and is the highest it's ever been for this time of year. |
| 1:14.8 | And the reason they're saying this is unprecedented and the worst case scenario is because it's a |
| 1:19.3 | combination of things like this slightly different strain of flu that is circulating when this is |
| 1:25.1 | happening versus when most people have managed to get their flu jab. |
| 1:29.7 | And then you throw into that the impending strike by resident doctors, formerly known as junior |
| 1:34.4 | doctors, which is due to take place next week. So there is lots of data to dive into and lots |
| 1:40.2 | of things to look at. And the people who are going to help us do that are the BBC's health |
| 1:44.8 | editor, Hugh Pym, who's here in the studio. Hello, Hugh. And also joining us on the line from |
| 1:49.5 | the UK Health Security Agency is Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal. Hello, Dr Jamie. Hi. Hi. Right, |
... |
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