Hello! Flu season is upon us and unfortunately
it's also during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Emily Godbout, infectious disease
expert at CHoR, is here to answer some important
questions about the flu shot and how you can prevent the spread of the flu this
season. Thanks for joining us Dr. Godbout! Thank
you so much for having me. So the first question is a common one
that we get, but why is the flu shot so important this
year? So this fall and winter, unlike last fall
and winter, we will likely be seeing both influenza
viruses and the virus that causes COVID-19
circulating in our community at the same time. So now more than ever
it's really important to get this flu shot to not only protect yourself
but your children, your family and your community as well. So we're
still in the middle of a global pandemic reducing the overall burden
of respiratory illnesses is really important to help protect
those vulnerable populations who are at risk for severe disease
but it also helps lessen the resulting burden on our health care system, which
is really important throughout the COVID-19
pandemic. Yeah, and who should be getting a flu
shot? So the flu shot is recommended every
single year for everyone six months of age and older.
Okay and you get it once per 12 months? That's right, yes so you do get the flu
shot every year. Unfortunately, there are so many
different flu viruses and they're constantly changing the U.S.
flu vaccine is reviewed every single year and
updated to match the circulating flu vaccines,
flu viruses. And the flu vaccine can typically protect against
three or four different viruses and so each year the researchers
go through and decide which they think will be the most common for the
following year and since the virus changes
significantly from year to year immunization or natural
infection from the previous year is not protective. Furthermore our
antibody response that's what helps us fight the virus can decrease over
time, so another dose will help boost the
antibody response before the start of the influenza season.
Okay, and when is the most important time of the year to get the
flu shot, when it's the most effective for kids and families?
So it's a great idea to get the flu shot right before flu season,
so September and October are really good times to get vaccinated
and ideally you would get the flu shot or the vaccine
administered before the end of October. We will continue to offer the flu shot
throughout the fall and winter as long as we still see that the flu
vaccine is circulating in our community. but ideally we want to try to see people
get it by the end of October. Okay great well we'll be sure to be
spreading the word on social media and our website as well.
And can I get the flu even if I do get the flu shot? Is it going to
prevent me from getting it? So the flu vaccine typically prevents
about 70 of every 100 people who receive it from developing
moderate to severe flu infection. This means that the flu shot does not
prevent all cases of flu. Even though the vaccine might not completely
prevent influenza infection, it can help prevent you from getting
really, really sick from it and it could also help
prevent you from having to go to the hospital for it.
And just because you get the flu shot, it doesn't mean that you can get the flu
from the flu shot. I hear that a lot from people.
The virus is inactivated, or there's certain protein in it so it can't
actually cause the flu infection after you get the shot.
That being said, is it so common for people or kids to still
feel like a little under the weather after getting the flu shot?
What is that, what should parents know?
Yeah, so sometimes after the flu shot you could potentially have
a low grade fever or a little bit of achiness, but this is not
due to infection from the flu. Okay great and is the flu shot this year
going to protect anyone from COVID-19 or the spread of that?
So as of right now we don't have any data to suggest that getting the flu
shot will protect us against COVID-19 but as we sort of
already mentioned, the flu shot can have so many
important benefits: reducing the risk of getting the flu,
reducing how sick you could get, and then also reducing
people getting hospitalized with flu. So there's a lot of good reasons to get the
flu shot. Yeah definitely. And we all know that
COVID-19 and flu both have a lot of overlapping symptoms.
So if a parent feels that their little one might have either one of those,
how do you determine if they should get tested for the flu or for COVID-19?
So you're exactly right, the flu and COVID-19 can have a lot of very similar
symptoms, so it can be really difficult to
differentiate between the two just based on symptoms alone. So we might
be in a situation this fall and winter where we might
need to get tested to help us figure out exactly what is causing someone to be
sick. And can we expect that,
either if it's an urgent care or a primary care physician,
that if a patient is presenting with both
of those symptoms or overlapping symptoms that they might be tested for
both? Yeah so I think there is some promise
that there might be um some more tests coming out
potentially even one test that could test for both
sort of what reagents are available and what tests are available.
But ideally, we would have one test that could potentially test for both that
might not be available at every single office in every urgent care center,
but the ability to test for flu is available
very rapidly at lots of doctors' offices and urgent care centers.
Yeah, so will wearing your mask, hand washing, social
distancing, all the things that we've been enforcing
and talking about during COVID-19, will these also help
prevent the spread of the flu? The practices
currently in place to help protect us against
COVID-19, all the things that you just said, will
probably help decrease the spread of influenza.
In fact, early data coming from countries in the southern hemisphere
actually suggest lower than usual rates of flu.
While this is certainly good news, things could be different for us here in the
northern hemisphere where we live and we don't have a crystal ball to help
us predict exactly what our flu season is going to look like. But
it's really awesome that we're all going to be very
well prepared with all the infection prevention strategies that we learned.
I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm a professional hand-washer now,
you know, my children are, my friends are. So it's really good that we maintain
all of those things, but what's great is that we have this added benefit
of having the flu vaccine. So it's really important for us
right now to start thinking about getting the flu vaccine and planning for
our children to get the flu vaccine, and our
other family members as well. Yeah, so keep wearing your mask,
keep washing your hands, keep your distance and then get the flu shot, of
course. Yes, yes. Awesome, is there anything else
that you wanted to add? Just a couple other things. People often
ask if they have an egg allergy, can they still get the flu
shot? So if you do have an egg allergy you can
still receive the flu shot it is suggested that people
with egg allergies remain at the provider's office for about 15 minutes
after you get the vaccination. And a lot of versions of the flu
vaccines are made in eggs and some people can certainly have
severe allergic reactions to eggs but the amount of egg protein that is within
the flu vaccine is really, really small and typically insufficient to cause a
severe allergic response. And then the other thing I just want to
hone in on, is that the flu shot is very safe and it's very effective at
helping prevent severe disease and hospitalization.
It's just such an important step for us all to take to help protect ourselves,
and our family members, and our communities, given that we're in the
middle of this COVID-19 pandemic. And I know a lot of people
might have reservations about coming into the
doctor's office, leaving their homes to come in to get
to get a shot, but I can assure everybody here that you, know our providers
are really vigilant about taking the appropriate precautions
to make sure that you're safe, that your children are safe,
because at the end of the day we also want to make sure that we're safe and
that we're safe for our families and our
children as well. Well thanks Dr. Godbout! If anyone has
any questions related to the flu vaccine this year, or where you
can get it locally in Richmond, or at CHoR, itself just leave them in the
comments below and we'll do our best to get back to you
within the week, thank you!