Elderly people get flu shot this fall — important | community

Getting a flu shot this fall is more important than ever. Influenza vaccination not only keeps you and your family healthy, but also reduces the burden on our health system and keeps hospital beds and other medical resources available to people with COVID-19. Helps you to.

This is not the normal flu season. It’s the flu season in a pandemic. Now that two dangerous viruses are spreading at once, it’s time to get the vaccine we already have, the flu vaccine, to protect our communities.

Influenza vaccination cannot protect you from COVID-19, but it has many other important benefits. Influenza vaccines have been shown to reduce the risk of influenza illness, hospitalization and death.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no evidence that influenza vaccination increases the risk of getting a coronavirus disease like it causes COVID-19.

At high risk for influenza complications are infants, pregnant women, people over the age of 65, and people with certain chronic health conditions. People over the age of 6 months should be vaccinated against the flu every year.

The CDC recommends vaccination in September or October, but you can be protected by flu shots at any time during the flu season.

The North American flu season rarely begins before October and usually lasts from December to March. Over the last two years, peak activity has occurred from mid-February to late February. Your body needs two weeks after firing to develop a protective response against the flu virus, so your best bet is to get vaccinated before the flu rate begins to rise.

Due to the challenge of maintaining social distance, this season may not be the case in workplaces and other environments where flu shots are usually given. For more information on where to get the flu vaccine, please visit: www.vaccinefinder.org..

When you are vaccinated against the flu, practice daily precautionary actions and follow the CDC’s recommendations for performing important tasks. Contact your doctor, pharmacist, or health department to see if you are following the CDC Vaccination Pandemic Guidance. Vaccination sites that follow the CDC guidance must be safe locations for influenza vaccination.

Medike Apartment B covers one flu shot per beneficiary and each flu season. If your doctor or other qualified healthcare provider accepts Medicare payments to give you a vaccination, you will not pay anything for the flu shot.

If you have a child over 6 months old who is covered by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), you can get a free flu shot.

Both influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are infectious respiratory diseases, but they are caused by another virus. COVID-19 is caused by infection with a new coronavirus (called SARS-CoV-2), and influenza is caused by infection with influenza virus. Because some of the symptoms of influenza and COVID-19 are similar, it can be difficult to tell the difference based solely on the symptoms, and tests may be needed to confirm the diagnosis.

Influenza and COVID-19 can develop at the same time. Health professionals are still studying how this can be common.

It’s impossible to say for sure what will happen in the fall and winter, but the CDC believes that both the flu virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 are likely to spread.

CDC has developed tests to check for A and B types of seasonal influenza virus and SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This test is used by the US Public Health Institute. By testing these viruses at the same time, public health officials can get important information about how influenza and COVID-19 are spreading and what precautions should be taken.

So get vaccinated against the flu this fall and protect yourself, your family, and your community.

Seema Verma is the administrator of the Medicare & Medicaid Service Center.