COVID concerns can help reduce the severity of the flu season | News

But this flu season has a different public health climate for her and for everyone. In addition to influenza, the country is under threat of a deadly pandemic (COVID-19), but vaccines are not yet available in this country.

Getting a flu shot is “the same as wearing a COVID mask,” said one of UGA’s pharmacy students who provided the flu shot in court on October. Adam Soloway said. “To protect vulnerable people.”

The 2020 Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Campaign in Georgia has begun. From Governor Brian Kemp’s October 7 press conference to local television ads to pop-up clinics throughout Athens, it’s clear that state and local governments don’t want to go through this winter’s flu season.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 is now a legitimate public health priority 1. The coronavirus has killed more Americans since March than the combined number of the four flu seasons of 2015 and 2019. Still, seasonal flu does not sneeze. It can make many people sick and even kill them.

“Influenza vaccination is important every year, especially this year,” said Sarapek, Clinic Manager at Clark County Health Department. “The fewer people hospitalized for the flu, the more medical resources are available to treat people infected with COVID-19.”

But there is another pressing reason to get vaccinated this fall. It is possible for healthcare professionals to misdiagnose influenza as COVID-19, and vice versa. Both are respiratory illnesses and have many of the same symptoms.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Axios that influenza vaccination helps reduce the risky effects of misdiagnosis.

“Vaccination can eliminate at least one or alleviate at least one,” Fauci said of the two diseases.

From September 27th to October, 4,802 people made medical visits to influenza-like illness during the latest period of data available from the Georgia Public Health Service, the 24th. From September 29th to October, DPH records show that on 26th, 2019, the number was 8,511.

Although the 2020-21 flu season is still early, these figures suggest a slight reduction in the flu burden on health systems this year. There are several factors that can contribute to that trend. One is that many people are vaccinated every year.

As of October 7, Davelle Pursner, a registered nurse working at UGA’s University Health Center, estimated that UHC had primarily vaccinated students about 1,000 doses.

“I think we’ve seen a significant increase in flu vaccine intake last year, especially early in the season, and we expect that to continue,” said Parsner. “So I think it’s becoming a bit new norm.”

Parsner opposes this trend, as students recognize that they and their friends can get seriously ill with the flu, and false information that discourages the use of vaccines. I attributed it to both scientifically sound public messages.

A survey of 1,000 US adults conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found similar vaccination trends nationwide. According to the survey results, 59% of Americans plan to get the flu vaccine, but a year ago it was 52%.

In addition, only 34% of respondents expressed concern that the flu vaccine would not work. In 2019, it was 51%.

According to a newly released analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the proportion of people over the age of six months who received the flu vaccine last season varied significantly across the United States. Prices ranged from a minimum of 44% in Nevada to a maximum of 61% in Rhode Island. In Georgia, the vaccination rate is the lowest at 46%.

Also, the proportion of African-Americans and Latin-Americans vaccinated against influenza in Georgia last season was significantly lower than that of whites.

There are several challenges to getting a flu shot. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that some parts of Georgia have sparse access to high-dose influenza vaccines aimed at eliciting a stronger immune response in older people. Although not a serious problem yet, the growing demand for vaccines during this flu season has created a temporary shortage in some areas.

There is another new standard that may limit the severity of the 2020-21 influenza season-COVID-19 Public Health Measures.

Some models predict the “worst case” of seasonal flu and COVID-19 combining at the population level, but Andreas Handel, Vice Dean of the UGA Health Informatics Institute, said it wasn’t all fate and darkness. Is called.

“It’s still a bad situation, but I don’t think it’s as bad as the idea of ​​a’perfect storm’suggests,” Handel said in mid-September. “And the main component that is the main reason for that is what we do.”

According to Handel, non-medical interventions such as wearing a mask and social distance can help mitigate the effects of all respiratory illnesses, not just COVID-19. He experiences the flu season from about April to September and analyzes flu trend data from countries like “strongly suppressed” Australia.

For example, according to the Australian Influenza Surveillance Report, the total number of influenza cases reported during the 2019-2020 influenza season has decreased by about one-fifteenth, with a total of 21,119 influenza-related deaths. The number of people was 36.

Handel said the sharp decline was not due to a decline in reports, but that Australian public health interventions designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 also helped eradicate influenza.

“Assuming we can sustain the non-pharmaceutical interventions we are currently implementing, this will have a strong impact on influenza,” Handel said in a speech. “And I predict this flu season will be milder.”

Despite Handel’s predictions, healthcare professionals are still strongly advised to be vaccinated against the flu.

“People may not learn this lesson until they get the flu,” said Pursner, a UGA nurse. “But whatever you can do to prevent it, you can prevent a lot of pain later.”