MORGANTOWN — As cold weather and flu season approaches, Gov. Jim Justice and his team have been encouraging residents to get their COVID boosters and their flu shots.
WVU Medicine’s Michael Stevens, system healthcare epidemiologist, says it’s important to talk about the flu and flu shots this season.
“There is concern flu will be bad this year,” he said. There are two major reasons for that.
One is that during the last couple of years, COVID mitigation strategies were in place — masks, staying home, no congregating — and those things have largely gone away, which means increased exposure and spread.
The other is we’ve lost the partial population immunity. So there’s a higher risk it will spread wider and faster.
The predictions, he said, are based in part in what they’ve seen in the southern hemisphere, where winter runs April-October. Australia had its worst flu season in several years, which was particularly hard-hitting among children, who congregate at schools and have no population immunity. “That does not portend well for us.”
And one more thing: flu season came early to Australia and New Zealand, so there’s concern it will happen here, too.
He’s urging people to get the flu shot, and because of the anticipated early season, get it as soon as possible — because it takes a couple weeks to become effective.
You can get your new omicron-targeted COVID booster and your flu shot at the same time (in opposite arms), he said. “There’s no reason to believe that will limit the effectiveness of either.”
He doesn’t know if COVID burnout and COVID vaccine resistance will affect people’s desire to get flu vaccines this season, he said, but he urges people to protect themselves and others.
Anyone age 6 months and up is eligible, he said. It’s not 100% in terms of preventing the flu, but it reduces the risk you’ll get a bad flu if you do get it.
There are various vaccine formulations, he said, and people with allergy concerns should talk to their doctor or pharmacist to find out if they’re eligible.
“The flu’s an awful disease,” Stevens said, particularly for the vulnerable— children, the elderly, pregnant women — and for the immunocompromised. The season could be worse if it’s accompanied by a COVID spike as people move more indoors and congregate more.
The CDC reports estimated flu numbers by the season. Here are numbers for recent flu seasons:
- 2019-20: 35 million illnesses; 380,209 hospitalizations; 20,342 deaths.
- 2018-19: 29 million illnesses; 375,126 hospitalizations; 27,619 deaths.
- 2017-18: 41 million illnesses; 710,572 hospitalizations; 51,646 deaths.
- 2016-17: 29 million illnesses; 496,912 hospitalizations; 38,230 deaths.
Some people will see mild side effects from the flu vaccine, Stevens said: low-grade headache, fever, some arm pain. “It’s your body having an immune response.”
The vaccine’s effectiveness wanes in about six months, he said, and many people will wait to get their shot so they’re covered into spring. But with this season expected to come early, it’s best to get it as soon as possible.
Flu will probably hit the schools first, Stevens said, because the kids are together and more vulnerable. They they can bring it home to parents and grandparents. If that happens, “we’re going to see significant spread.”
If you get symptoms, how do you know if you have COVID or the flu? Early in the pandemic, COVID took away some people’s sense of taste and smell, and that was a clear sign. But they’re both viral and with the newer variants the symptoms are often indistinguishable.
So the best course, he said, is to get tested.
TWEET David Beard @dbeardtdp
EMAIL dbeard@dominionpost.com
