How to time your flu shot for best protection
After the flu practically disappeared in the US for two years as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down society, there are indications that the flu could return this fall, potentially causing an unusually early and potentially severe flu season.
As a result, many experts are urging people to get the flu shot immediately to ensure they are protected. But is this the best time?
It depends on which expert you are speaking to and maybe also your age and your particular situation.
“Now is the time to get the flu vaccine,” advises Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University.
“People should be getting them now,” agrees Shaun Truelove, an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who is helping lead a new effort to plan this year’s flu season for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The usual flu season in the US begins in November and peaks in January or February. “In normal years, it makes sense to wait until late fall to get the flu vaccine because protection really doesn’t last more than a couple of months, and here the flu usually hits in late fall/winter,” says Deepta Bhattacharya. an immunologist at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. “So in a normal year I would probably try to wait until mid-October and then get the flu shot,” he says. But this year, he says, “flu cases are already starting to rise, so it makes sense to get them sooner — ie, now.”
Why the flu could come back strong this year
The reason experts are particularly concerned about the flu this year is because many people, particularly very young children, may have little or no immunity to the respiratory infection due to masking, social distancing and other behaviors to protect against COVID have slowed the spread of the flu. to. Also, according to the CDC, young children would do well to get a flu shot soon because they need two shots a month apart and it takes time to build up immunity.
Because the protection offered by the flu shot in older people tends to wear off more quickly than in other adults, many experts advise against vaccinating this group to early – but now it’s ok.
“For older people, I would recommend vaccination in September at the earliest, as immunity can drop. I tend to get my vaccination in October,” says Dr. Walter Orenstein, a vaccine specialist at Emory University who previously worked at the CDC.
Warning sign from Australia
There is another reason for many other adults to get vaccinated against flu sooner or later: The flu season hit early and hard in some southern hemisphere countries (like Australia) last winter. And what happens south of the equator in winter often gives an idea of what will happen in the northern hemisphere.
“So getting the vaccine sooner is definitely a good idea,” says Truelove.
Still, some experts say they plan to wait a few more weeks to get their own shot.
“I’ll get mine sometime in November,” says John Moore, an immunologist at Weil Cornell Medicine. “The protection provided by influenza vaccines is usually weak and short-lived,” he notes, “so getting vaccinated too early provides too little protection when the virus is actually circulating. And that’s not now. We are not yet in ‘flu season’.”
Others say adults could reasonably wait until it seems cases are increasing in their area.
“I would say it’s best to keep an eye on flu activity in your area,” says Jeremy Kamil, an immunologist at Louisiana State University. “Ideally, we want to adjust our boost to give us an optimal level of immunity when the virus is actually on the rise.”
Just don’t wait too long. Because the flu often hits hard when people travel and gather for Thanksgiving, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases encourages people to “make sure they’re vaccinated by Halloween,” says Patsy Stinchfield, the foundation’s president. “It takes about two or three weeks for antibodies to rise high enough to offer protection.”
Ultimately, the exact time that you get a flu shot in the next month or so isn’t as important as that you get one, flu experts agree, especially this year. Truelove’s group estimates that the worst-case scenario of the flu could hospitalize up to 560,000 people in the US this year – and kill as many as 63,000.
“A vaccine that is postponed is often a vaccine that is not received,” says Schaffner. “You have to have the discipline to make sure you get vaccinated.”
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