Boone County Flu Trends: A New CDC Tool to Check at Home

Anyone in Rocheport who wants to know whether flu, COVID-19 or RSV is on the rise around here now has a new way to check: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched an online tool estimating whether each of those three illnesses is climbing, falling or holding steady, county by county, KOMU 8 reported.

What does the CDC tool actually show?

The tool gives modeled trend estimates, not raw case counts — it tells you the direction things are moving, not how many people are sick. As of the data KOMU 8 cited (a flu map dated Oct. 21), influenza was estimated to be declining in Boone, Cole and Callaway counties, while COVID-19 wasn’t estimated to be changing in any of those three plus Audrain County, and RSV wasn’t currently estimated for any of them. The tool covers every state and many individual counties, so a Howard or Cooper County reader can look up their own county the same way, even though KOMU 8’s report only pulled numbers for the four counties nearest Columbia.

Should Boone County get ready for a bigger flu season?

Austin Krohn, a spokesperson for the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department, told KOMU 8 that flu activity is expected to climb even though the estimate isn’t rising yet. “Even though it’s not changing now, we’re going to see more spikes,” Krohn said. He said the county’s most recent count — covering an earlier period in October — logged 14 flu cases, and the department was still waiting on updated numbers. Krohn recommended the usual basics: get a flu shot and keep up good hygiene. He said the health department is also looking at ways to make local flu case counts easier for the public to find online.

That’s the same department that brought a flu clinic to Moniteau Housing in Rocheport earlier this month — readers who missed it can still get a shot at the department’s Columbia office by calling 573-874-7356. It’s also the department behind this year’s county health assessment, the five-year data snapshot that’s now steering where its federal support dollars go.