Health experts: Please get flu vaccine this year
BALTIMORE — When the flu virus begins mixing with the coronavirus this fall, the resulting double whammy of respiratory disease threatens to overwhelm doctors and hospitals, officials fear.
“Each can fill up emergency rooms on its own,” said Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, director of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health. “That’s why we’re really encouraging people this year to get the influenza vaccine.”
Neuzil and other public health officials say the upcoming flu season could be more mild, at least to start, because of the wide adoption of COVID-19-related precautions. Many people also remain at home because schools and office buildings are closed.
There are fewer flu cases now in the Southern Hemisphere during its flu season because “people are behaving and social distancing and wearing masks,” she said.
But she and others worry those benefits could wane as cities and states lift restrictions, people tire of precautions and colder weather pushes more activities indoors.
There also will be fewer mass influenza vaccination opportunities because fewer people are going to work or school. People also may continue avoiding doctors’ offices. Already, routine inoculations for children have dropped during the pandemic, sparking a push by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to catch up.
Dr. Lisa Maragakis, senior director of infection prevention for the Johns Hopkins Health System, said taking steps to prevent one virus prevents others, and she hopes such vigilance continues. She also hopes people get the flu vaccine.
“Raising awareness of the flu vaccine is even more important this year,” she said. “The more we can do to prevent the viruses the better off we’ll be.”
The flu vaccine is the only option, she said, since vaccines to prevent COVID19
remain in development and aren’t expected to be widely available until next year at the earliest.
Maragakis also said that doctors won’t know which respiratory infection someone has without testing because flu and COVID-19 share symptoms, including fever, cough and aches. Other respiratory diseases also begin circulating in the fall, such as RSV.
The nation’s testing system already is bogged down with COVID-19 for a variety of reasons, including a lack of supplies and scarce lab capacity. Tests, though, are being developed to could screen for multiple viruses at the same time.
Maragakis said scientists and doctors are looking to the Southern Hemisphere, which is in the midst of its flu season, for some information to guide their response and should have data in the coming weeks and months.
International health officials say such information may not be as helpful this season, however. Some countries may not collect as much flu data because they are devoting all of their public health resources to COVID-19. If health officials can’t figure out, as a result, which strains of flu are most prevalent, that could even lead to the development of a less effective flu vaccine in the future.