The Virginia Department of Health reported Monday that two children have died because of the flu. 

First pediatric deaths of flu season

The backstory:

They are the first two influenza-associated pediatric deaths of the 2024-2025 flu season, officials said.

“With a heavy heart, the Virginia Department of Health mourns the loss of two young lives. Our sympathies go out to the families during this difficult time,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton said in a statement. 

“These losses are a sad reminder that while flu is common, it can be associated with serious illness and even death.”

Health Department officials said that one of the deaths occurred in Virginia’s Eastern Region and involved a young school-aged child, meaning 5 -12 years old. 

They said the other death occurred in the Central Region of Virginia and involved a teenager.

Low flu vaccination rates in Virginia

What they’re saying:

Officials also pointed out that vaccination coverage remains low in the Commonwealth for both children and adults, adding that only 30 percent of eligible Virginians reported receiving a flu vaccine this season.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the low vaccination rate was not a surprise.

“We know nationally that rates of vaccination for influenza and other vaccines have all fallen off post-Covid, that people have become vaccine hesitant, that they’ve become complacent, and we know that when it comes to pediatric influenza deaths, one of the predictors is being unvaccinated,” Adalja told FOX 5. “So, when we see children die from influenza, often they are unvaccinated.”

It is unclear whether that was the case with the two recent Virginia deaths.

Still, state officials are urging Virginians to get vaccinated, wash their hands, cover up coughs and sneezes, and stay home when they feel sick.

Northern Virginia business owners are overwhelmingly optimistic about the region’s economy in the new year, but affordability has become a top concern for business leaders trying to attract new talent and new businesses to the region.

A survey of more than 100 CEOs, corporate executives and business owners conducted on behalf of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce by marketing firm Pinkston, found 81% are very or somewhat optimistic about their company’s performance in the next six months and 49% plan to hire.

According to George Mason University’s Stephen S. Fuller Institute, 46% of the Washington region’s economy is driven by Northern Virginia. But it is neither inexpensive to do business in Northern Virginia nor to live in the region. Both are hard sells.

“The biggest concern that I hear on a consistent basis among all employers is the question of affordability. And affordability is housing, it’s also child care, it’s basic cost of living,” said Julie Coons, who has served as CEO of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce since 2018.

“When I first got onboard, it was lack of skilled workers, which continues to be a challenge But it has now expanded into the driving factor around that for employers is affordability. It is a serious regional issue,” she said.

Northern Virginia companies can pull from a local pool of skilled workers to meet their growth needs, but the cost of living makes the region less attractive to professionals being recruited to the region and for companies looking to expand or relocate. In its survey, 27% of companies said it is more difficult to find qualified talent to hire now than it was a year ago, and 64% said it is about the same.

When asked about the new Trump administration, 46% of business leaders in Northern Virginia are hopeful for business-friendly changes, including extending tax cuts, reducing regulations, and transportation and infrastructure investment. But there are concerns about the new administration as well.

“Seventy-eight percent of business leaders expressed some concern about the incoming administration’s stated plans to relocate federal agencies outside of the DMV. We would see that as damaging to economic growth around the region,” Coons said.

Such moves would be part of the Administration’s advisory-only Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which could also reduce the federal government’s regional workforce. In the survey, 27% of business leaders said they were very concerned about the impact.

Other concerns about the new administration include tariffs, cited by 30% of business leaders, and immigration reform, cited by 16%.

Northern Virginia business leaders were also asked what priorities they have for the Virginia General Assembly in 2025. The top answers were tax cuts, transportation and infrastructure, keeping right-to-work, and public safety.

The business leader survey was conducted from Jan. 2 through Jan. 15 and included leaders of businesses of all sizes. Full survey results and methodology are online.

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FIRST ON FOX: JD Vance is “fulfilling his promise” to American voters as he makes his first trip as vice president to Damascus, Virginia, on Monday to visit areas affected by Hurricane Helene in late September.

It will be Vance’s second trip to Damascus since the hurricane swept across the southeast on Sept. 27, destroying parts of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida and leaving more than 200 people dead.

“Vice President Vance visited with Damascus residents in October after the town was ravaged by Hurricane Helene,” a spokesperson for the vice president told Fox News Digital. “He pledged to be back, and now he’s fulfilling his promise. The first week of this administration has made it clear that President Trump and Vice President Vance keep their word.”

Vance’s trip comes just days after President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and other politicians visited Asheville, Fletcher and Swannanoa, North Carolina, on Jan. 24, marking the now-president’s second trip to those areas since September.

HURRICANE SURVIVORS WHO MET TRUMP IN NORTH CAROLINA SHARE PRESIDENT’S WORDS THAT STUCK WITH THEM

Trump spoke in all three towns but allowed a group of locals who lost everything in Helene to share their own personal stories during his stop in Swannanoa. Some locals have taken issue with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) handling of the disaster, saying it has too much red tape for those in need of immediate assistance to get the help they need, whether it be housing, money or both.

“I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina on Friday morning. “I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.”

FEMA EXTENDS TRANSITIONAL HOUSING PROGRAM FOR NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS DISPLACED BY HURRICANE HELENE

President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to a neighborhood affected by Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, N.C., on Jan. 24, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump also promised that his administration would step in and assist North Carolina to fix the damage quickly, vowing to “do a good job” for the state. 

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“We’re going to fix it, and we’re going to fix it as fast as you can,” Trump said. “It’s a massive amount of damage. FEMA has really let us down, let the country down. And I don’t know if that’s [former President Joe] Biden’s fault or whose fault it is, but we’re going to take over. We’re going to do a good job.”

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.