Ohio is seeing minimal flu activity according to the CDC’s latest data.
However, Dr. Roberto Colón, the associate chief medical officer for Miami Valley Hospital said right now, mid to late October, is the perfect time to get a flu shot.
“To be able to avoid the pitfall of immunizing too early and the potential of waning immunity, but also doing it early enough that we’re catching a lot of people getting protected before we start seeing a rise in the number of influenza cases,” Dr. Colón said.
He said the more people who get the vaccine, the safer everyone will be.
“Any adult can get influenza. Any adult can have a bad outcome from influenza, and any adult can pass on that influenza to an older individual, or somebody who’s a higher risk, or a child,” Dr. Colón said.
He also explained, doctors do not know the exact relationship between COVID-19 and the flu. However, he said if patients have one after the other, they will likely have a more severe outcome.
“Because your immune system is going to be weakened. Your body is going to be potentially not healed,” Dr. Colón said.
From a public health standpoint, high flu activity could create a dangerous situation.
“We do not want people flooding the hospital with influenza like illnesses at the same time as Covid, because we could now have dual epidemics, a pandemic with Covid, and an influenza epidemic. We certainly do not want to have that situation,” Dr. Colón said.
He explained, there are some side effects with the flu vaccine. The most common is some pain at the site of injection. Sometimes patients will experience mild cold-like symptoms. Dr. Colón said this is just the body showing an immune response to the vaccine, which is ok. It is less common, but some people can also have a low grade fever or headache.