Seniors urged to get highly potent flu vaccine this season

Doctors have a message for Americans sick of vaccines. Don’t skip your flu shot this fall.

After the COVID-19 pandemic brought flu to historically low levels, it could return. A major clue is that the nasty flu season is just over in Australia.

There’s no way to predict whether the United States will be hit as hard, but “Last year we went into flu season without knowing if there was an epidemic. You know,” said Richard Webby, an influenza specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Annual flu vaccination is recommended From a 6 month old baby. Influenza is most dangerous to people over 65, young children, pregnant women, and people with certain health problems such as heart or lung disease.

Here’s what you should know:

Upshot for advanced users

As people get older, their immune systems respond less strongly to standard flu vaccinations. It is

You have three options. Fluzone High-Dose and Flublok each contain high doses of the main anti-flu ingredients. Another option is Fluad Adjuvanted, which is a regular dose but contains special ingredients that help boost people’s immune response.

Older people can ask what kind the doctor has. However, most flu vaccinations are given at pharmacies, and some drugstore websites, such as CVS, do not offer vaccinations for older adults if their date of birth indicates that they are eligible. automatically directed to.

look: White House monkeypox response team says vaccine is effective

Webby advised to make sure you know about immunizations for the elderly in case relatives or friends of the elderly were not notified when they asked for vaccinations.

“They should at least ask, ‘Do you have a better shot for me?'” Webby said. “The bottom line is that this age group works better.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it’s better to get a standard flu shot than skip the shot if the location exceeds the dose for the elderly.

All flu vaccines in the United States (including the type for people under 65) are “quadrivalent”. In other words, it protects against 4 different influenza strains. Young people also have options, including shots for those with egg allergies and a nasal spray version called FluMist.

Why flu experts are alarmed

Dr Andrew Pekos of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health says Australia has just experienced its worst flu season in five years and what will happen in the southern hemisphere winter predicts what countries in the north can expect. He said there were many things.

People have also largely abandoned masks and distancing precautions that also helped prevent the spread of other respiratory germs, such as the flu, in the early days of the pandemic.

“This poses a particular risk to young children who may have had little exposure to the flu virus prior to this season,” added Pekosh.

Newslap: New York City lifts vaccine mandate for private sector workers

“This year is going to be a true flu season like we’ve seen before the pandemic,” said Dr. Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Children’s hospitals are already seeing an unusually early spike in other respiratory infections, including RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus), and flu is similarly likely to break out earlier than usual, as happened in Australia. I am afraid that

The CDC recommends getting the flu vaccine by the end of October, but says it can be done at any time during flu season. It takes about two weeks for the protection to take hold.

The US expects 173-183 million doses this year. Yes, you can get your flu shot and her latest COVID-19 booster at the same time.

Futuristic influenza vaccination

The companies that make the two most widely used COVID-19 vaccines are currently testing flu shots made with the same technology. One reason is that if the flu mutates, so-called mRNA vaccine recipes could be updated more quickly than today’s flu shots. Most current vaccinations are made by growing the influenza virus in chicken eggs.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have recruited 25,000 healthy adults in the U.S. to receive either an flu shot or a conventional flu shot to see how this new approach works this flu season. I’m checking to see if it’s relevant.

Rival Moderna has tested its version on about 6,000 people in Australia, Argentina and other countries during the Southern Hemisphere flu season and is awaiting results.