Get the flu shot
This fall, let’s use vaccinations to help avoid double trouble that a ‘twindemic’ could bring.
Just when it seemed that 2020 couldn’t get any worse, health officials are warning about the dangers of an aggressive flu season hitting while we are still battling COVID-19 this fall.
They are calling the scenario a “twindemic,” which is as bad as it sounds.
Experts who make a living thinking about worst-case possibilities say the combination could be devastating to a system still reeling from the current pandemic. But you don’t have to be a pessimist to see the dangers.
Hospitals crowded with COVID patients would be confronted with another wave of those sickened by the flu. Health care workers who have spent more than six months in the trenches fighting new coronavirus outbreaks would be stretched even thinner. People recovering from one virus would be weakened in battling the other.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to avoid this dose of double trouble: Get a flu shot.
It’s that easy. It could save thousands of lives, including your own and all those who benefit from treatment in an ICU bed you won’t need.
Unfortunately, as with the guidance to wear a mask, socially distance and wash your hands to avoid spreading COVID, too many people refuse to get a flu shot even in the best of times.
Years of data show flu vaccinations reduce the chances of getting sick and, if you do, make the symptoms milder. They also reduce the time spent in the hospital for those who get sick enough to be admitted. And yet fewer than half of adult Americans took the time to get a shot during the 2018-19 season.
Excuses range from lack of time, a general fear of vaccines and the mistaken belief that a shot can actually give you the flu. It doesn’t. The low-grade fever, headache and muscle aches that some people experience are actually evidence that your body is gearing up to fight the virus.
Some skeptics even suggest that it’s better to catch the flu than to take the shot. That’s a huge risk. Influenza kills tens of thousands in America every year.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between 39 million and 56 million people were sickened by the flu in the United States during the 2019-20 season. Influenza prompted more than 18 million medical visits, more than 410,000 hospitalizations, and at least 24,000 deaths that year. The upper estimates put hospitalizations at 740,000 and deaths at 62,000.
Add those influenza totals to the U.S. COVID count of 5.7 million cases, an as-yet uncounted number of hospitalizations and almost 180,000 deaths, and it’s clear why medical authorities are concerned about a viral perfect storm overwhelming hospitals and health care workers.
A flu shot isn’t a guarantee, but it greatly reduces risks and medical consequences, especially important in the time of COVID.
Recent studies by CDC researchers and others suggest that vaccination usually reduces the risk of getting the flu by 40 percent to 60 percent among the overall population. A 2018 study showed that among adults hospitalized with flu, vaccinated patients were 59 percent less likely to be admitted to the ICU than those who had not gotten a shot. Among adults in the ICU with flu, vaccinated patients on average spent four fewer days than those who were not vaccinated.
The U.S. flu season runs from October through April, with peaks between December and February. Last season was beginning to fade when COVID-19 hit, so we mostly avoided the twindemic effect. That won’t be the case this season, even if a COVID vaccine is developed and on the market quickly.
Officials with Harris County Public Health say they are already talking about when to launch a public awareness campaign and are awaiting more guidance from the CDC.
The agency will include a map on its website (https://publichealth.harriscountytx.gov) showing where to get flu shots and additional information when that effort begins.
Retail drug stores, clinics and other outlets are already offering vaccinations. Now is the time to get yourself and your loved ones vaccinated.
The possibility of a COVID-flu twindemic may sound as far-fetched as two hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at once. But these things do happen. And it is 2020.