The best time to get your annual flu vaccine is now, experts say.
There are a few clear-cut indicators that this season will spell trouble for the US, infectious disease scientists say. In most years, flu seasons are a guessing game for those experts. Because the virus is constantly mutating, it’s hard to say for certain whether or not it’ll be a severe one. “We’ve been saying for the last few years to expect bad flu seasons, and that didn’t pan out,” explains, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Stony Brook University.
from Australia’s Department of Health and Aged Care. Children between 5 to 9 had the highest flu case rates followed by children younger than 5 and people between 10 to 19 years old.Fortunately, there’s some good news. Another reason virologists closely follow Australia’s flu season is to identify which strains are circulating in the region. These strains are then considered in the final design of the annual flu vaccine, increasing the chances it will be highly effective.
“It’s always been a struggle to get a large portion of the population vaccinated against the flu,” explains Handel. “And over the last couple of years, fewer and fewer people have gotten flu vaccines, and that’s one more hole in the layer of protection against infections.” While experts incorrectly predicted an enormous surge for 2021-2022 flu season as places opened back up, there is cause for concern for this upcoming season. To start, this will mark the third year in which most of the population’s immune systems have not been exposed to the flu virus. Both experts say it’s likely everyone’s immunity against influenza has waned. Waning immunity could lead to a greater chance of getting infected and having more severe illness.