Best plan for 2022 flu season? Get your flu shot early – UCHealth Today

The fall 2022 flu season may arrive early. The best way to protect yourself is to get a flu vaccine. Photo: Getty Images.

The fall 2022 flu season may hit early and hard this year, so its best to get your flu vaccine as soon as possible.

To prepare for the upcoming fall and winter flu season, U.S. medical experts keep a close eye on how the flu season played out in the southern hemisphere during their recent fall and winter (from about April through August of this year).

And data from Australia point to a possible rough, early flu season in the northern hemisphere.

Dr. Michelle Barron is one of the top infectious disease experts in Colorado. Shes urging people to get their flu vaccines relatively early this fall.

Every year, we try to guess when the flu is going to hit and when we should get our vaccines. Some people wait to get their flu shot until right before Thanksgiving in case theyll be traveling over the holidays, said Barron, UCHealths senior medical director of infection prevention and control. Based on what were seeing in the southern hemisphere, thats not the best plan this year.

Her advice: Dont wait. Get your flu shot as soon as its available.

Barron reminds people that it takes about two weeks after you get your flu shot for the vaccine to fully go into effect.

Getting your flu shot relatively early this year in September or October is the best way to brace yourself for what could be an early, virulent flu season.

The flu vaccine will protect you for four to six months. If youre a little off on your timing, thats fine. Its best to be early this year. If you get your shot too late, it just means youre more at risk of getting the flu, said Barron, who is also a professorat theUniversity of Colorado School of Medicineon theAnschutz Medical Campus.

We consulted with Barron about how the flu season played out in Australia and what could happen during the fall and winter months in the U.S. She also answered some frequently asked questions about the flu and how COVID-19 may affect the flu season.

We wont really know until it hits us, Barron said. I would love for us to change the course of the flu this year. If we get enough people vaccinated and were smart, maybe we can do that. But we wont know exactly what happens with the flu until it starts to spread.

Its very difficult to predict exactly how this years flu season will play out, Barron said. But, the best indication of what could happen here is to look at what happened with flu cases in the southern hemisphere. So, Barron keeps close tabs on reports from Australian infectious disease experts.

And in the southern hemisphere, the flu hit early and hard this year. Its more typical for flu cases to peak between July and September in Australia. This year, they began climbing in April and peaked at very high levels in May and June. (Please see the chart below from Australian health officials.)

This year, Australian health officials saw a larger spike of flu cases than they had in several years.

If you look at the COVID-19 years, flu cases rarely hit the radar. But if you look at the slope of the curve in Australia and how quickly people got sick, it took off fast, Barron said.

Their peak was early. Thats comparable to November and December here (when cases typically peak in the U.S. in January and February). Thats what Im worried about, Barron said.

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reduced cases of the flu around the world. Stay-at-home measures and interventions like masking and social distancing, reduced cases of COVID-19 and also prevented the spread of the flu. So, in both 2020 and 2021, flu cases were much lower than in typical years. Now, as people are resuming their normal activities and few are taking precautions like wearing masks regularly, the flu can spread more easily.

In addition, our bodies immune systems arent used to fighting the flu, so we may be more vulnerable this fall and winter, Barron said.

We havent had exposure for two years, so when it comes to flu, our immune systems arent revved up and ready to go, Barron said.

She uses the analogy of running.

If youre training for a marathon, its time to start running again. You cant rest on your laurels, like your fitness in the past. Its time to log some miles and get your immune system up and ready again because the flu is coming, Barron said.

Yes. Its perfectly safe to get both shots at the same time, Barron said. And thats really convenient. Many people will want to do exactly that in September and October of this year. If everyone who is eligible gets both a new flu and COVID-19 shot this fall, we could dramatically reduce severe cases of both flu and COVID-19 this fall and winter, Barron said.

Getting an annual flu and COVID vaccine could become our new normal, and in future years, the two vaccines could be combined into one vaccine.

Most medical facilities are getting flu shots now. Check with your doctors office or your employer and book an appointment soon.

The new COVID-19 booster shots that specifically fight the newest omicron variants recently have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Like flu shots, these new COVID-19 boosters should be available throughout the U.S. within days.

Barron advises people to get their flu shots as soon as possible, and definitely by October.

No vaccine is perfect. And flu vaccines are especially complex, Barron said. Thats because vaccine makers have to guess in advance which flu strains will be circulating later that year. Then they create a vaccine that they hope will fight the prevailing flu strains.

During some years, the flu vaccine works better than in other years.

But even when its not a perfect match, getting the flu vaccine can dramatically reduce hospitalizations and deaths from the flu.

It keeps you out of the hospital and it keeps you from dying, Barron said.

Thats why her advice is quite simple now: Get your flu vaccine.

This is probably going to be a bad flu year. Please protect yourselves, she said. For the past few years, weve been focused on COVID, COVID, COVID. But, we did see a surge of the flu in May of this year. Thats a preview of what could happen this fall and winter. A lot of people could get sick. The flu will be back.

The flu shot does not give you the flu. The shot does not contain live virus. As with any vaccine, there can be side effects, but those are normal, Barron said. If you get the flu after you get the flu shot, you were going to get it anyway. Thats just a case of bad timing and bad luck. The best way to avoid getting the flu is to get your flu shot as early as possible.

Yes. Theres a high dose flu shot for people over age 65. Its meant to give you an extra boost to your immune system, Barron said.

When you schedule your flu shot with your medical provider, if you are older, you should automatically get the specially-formulated shot for older adults. But, of course, its wise to ask about which type of flu shot you are getting.

Read this article:

Best plan for 2022 flu season? Get your flu shot early - UCHealth Today