For years, Jeri Stuart did not get a flu shot. Now, the 54-year-old breast most cancers survivor doesn’t wish to gamble together with her well being.
She obtained her flu shot final week.
“My mom at all times hounded me to get them performed,” she mentioned. “I figured, you already know what, let’s simply get all the pieces that we are able to to make sure that I do not get sick.”
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention is urging everybody 6 months and older to additionally get their flu shot. Public well being officers are fearful a few false sense of safety after two milder flu seasons resulting from COVID precautions.
Australia, which experiences winter forward of the U.S., simply had its worst flu season in 5 years.
“I do not wish to be alarmist, however I’m involved. We all know that it should be a pressure of flu that tends to be extra extreme,” mentioned Dr. Michael Phillips, an infectious illness skilled at NYU Langone Well being. “For these ages higher than 65, there is a particular formulations of vaccines that it is best to get and it dramatically reduces the chance of hospitalization and loss of life.”
Lower than half of U.S. adults plan to get a flu shot this yr and only a third really feel secure getting a flu shot and COVID-19 vaccine on the similar time, in keeping with a Nationwide Basis for Infectious Ailments survey.
Stuart opted for each a flu shot and the bivalent COVID booster, which the CDC says may be safely given collectively.
“If it is one thing that is going to assist reduce signs, then each little bit helps,” she mentioned.
Flu season sometimes begins in October, peaks in December by February and may final into the spring. Like COVID vaccines, the flu shot might not cease you from getting contaminated, however the CDC says it could considerably decrease the danger of hospitalization and loss of life.
If you wish to discover a pharmacy or clinic that provides the type of flu shot you want, go to vaccines.gov/find-vaccines then kind in your zip code.
