Get ready: Flu season just around the corner

One consistent theme throughout the coronavirus pandemic has been the need to wash hands thoroughly and avoid touching faces.

It’s the same advice that public health experts give each year to prevent cases of seasonal influenza. Perhaps because it’s so familiar, many of us don’t take influenza seriously enough. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million to 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 to 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 to 61,000 deaths annually since 2010.

And prevention can be as basic as washing hands, sanitizing surfaces and covering your mouth when coughing.

Advice, as we have seen, that many people ignore. With the coming of COVID-19, experts have stressed basic hygiene as a strategy to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus.

People are washing hands. They are disinfecting surfaces and using hand sanitizer. Businesses and public areas also are doing a better job of cleaning frequently and deeply. The result? A cleaner United States and possibly, a less deadly influenza season.

Reducing the burden on the health care system is essential as the nation continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why reducing cases of influenza will be important. Health experts are advising everyone — as they do yearly — to get their influenza vaccinations and get it early. Doses should be available sometime in September.

With more people working at home, it’s important to think about how to get that important shot. Many folks just signed up at work for flu shot clinics. Those might not be available now. Folks who are staying home and not going out and about might be unable to stop by a pharmacy or store for a vaccine. Think about ways to access the important vaccine safely, even during a period of isolation.

Of course, if everyone continues to wear face masks and social distance, that should reduce the spread of germs.

Already, the lockdowns and other measures designed to stop COVID-19 are being credited with shutting down the 2019-2020 flu season about six weeks early, according to World Health Organization data.

Now, with a new flu season just around the corner, it’s time to prepare.

Get vaccinated early. Continue to wash hands, use sanitizer, wear face masks and maintain social distance. Don’t touch your face and do cover coughs to avoid spreading germs.

These strategies will help prevent both seasonal influenza and the COVID-19.

Someday, on the other end of the coronavirus pandemic when vaccines are widely available, we can assess how hand-washing saved lives and wonder why we were so lax for so many years. This flu season, if Americans do what works, could be one of the least deadly in years. That would be welcome news.