At least 53 children have died in the US during one of the worst flu seasons on record, but televangelist Gloria Copeland has told her followers: "Jesus himself gave us the flu shot".
Copeland, who co-founded the Kenneth Copeland Ministries in Texas with her husband and is one of Donald Trump's evangelical advisers, appeared in a video posted online by the Right Wing Watch blog.
During the speech, she claims "we don't have a flu season" and said don't be threatened when somebody claims "everybody's getting the flu".
"We’ve already had our shot: He bore our sicknesses and carried our diseases. That’s what we stand on. And by his stripes, we were healed," she said.
Copeland said she would pray for everyone with symptoms of the flu.
"I'm asking you lord, by your supernatural power, to heal them now from the top of their head to the soles of their feet ... Jesus himself gave us the flu shot. He redeemed us from the curse of flu," she said.
"Put words, inoculate yourself with the word of God. He himself bore my sicknesses, carried my diseases, and by his stripes I was healed. I am healed," she added.
This year, the most common strain of influenza in the United States is H3N2, and nearly every state has been hit hard, said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"For the past three weeks, the entire country has been experiencing lots of flu, all at the same time," said Dan Jernigan, director of the Influenza Division at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, part of the CDC.
This marks the "most flu activity since 2009," he said.
A total of 6.6 per cent of all people going to clinics and emergency departments so far this season did so because of the flu, he said.
"This is the highest level of activity recorded since the 2009 pandemic, which peaked at 7.7 per cent."
- With AFP.
