It’s flu vaccine time, and seniors need intensive shots

Doctors have a message for vaccine-weary Americans: Don’t miss a flu shot this fall — and seniors, ask for a special-strength shot.

After the flu reached historic lows during Pandemic of the coronavirus infection covid-19, it may be ready for a comeback. Top tip: nasty flu season just finished in australia.

While it’s impossible to predict whether the U.S. will be hit as hard, “last year we went into flu season not knowing if we had the flu or not. This year, we know the flu is back,” the expert said. by flu Richard Webby of St. Judah Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Annual flu shots are recommended starting with 6-month-old babies. The flu is most dangerous for people age 65 and older, small children, pregnant women and people with certain health problems including heart and lung disease.

Here’s what you need to know:

OPEN ARROWS FOR DEADLINES

As people get older, their immune systems don’t respond as well to the standard flu vaccination. This year, people age 65 and older are encouraged to purchase a special look for extra protection.

There are three options. Fluzone High-Dose and Flublok contain higher doses of the main anti-influenza ingredient. Another option is Fluad Adjuvanted, which has the usual dosage but contains a special ingredient that helps boost people’s immune response.

Older people may ask what their doctor looks like. But most flu shots are given at drugstores, and the websites of some pharmacies, such as CVS, automatically direct people to locations that offer senior doses if their birth date indicates they qualify.

Webby advised making sure older relatives and friends know about senior shots, in case they aren’t told when they seek the vaccination.

“They should at least ask, ‘Do you have pictures that are better for me?’ ” Webby said. “The bottom line is they work better” for that age group.

If the location does not have doses designed for the elderly, it is better to get a standard flu shot than to skip vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

All flu vaccines in the U.S., including types for people younger than 65, are “quadrivalent,” meaning they protect against four different strains of the flu. Young people also have options, including shots for those with egg allergies and a nasal spray version called FluMist.

WHY FLU EXPERTS ARE CONCERNED

Australia has just experienced its worst flu season in five years, and what happens in the southern hemisphere winter often predicts what northern countries can expect, said Dr Andrew Pekosh of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

And people have largely abandoned the masking and distancing precautions that earlier in the pandemic also helped prevent the spread of other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu.

“It’s dangerous, especially for young children who haven’t been exposed before influenza viruses until this season,” Pekosh added.

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

He said children’s hospitals are already seeing an unusual early spike in other respiratory infections, including RSV, or respiratory syncytial virusand also worried that the flu will come earlier than usual, as it did in Australia.

The CDC advises a flu vaccine until the end of October, but says they can be given at any time during flu season. It takes about two weeks to install the protection.

This year, the US expects between 173 and 183 million doses. And yes, you can get the flu shot and the updated COVID-19 booster at the same time—one in each arm to help reduce the pain.

Flu shots are THE FUTURE

The companies that make the two most common vaccines against COVID-19 are testing flu shots made with the same technology. One reason: As the flu mutates, prescriptions for so-called mRNA vaccines can be updated more quickly than today’s flu shots, most of which are made by cultivation influenza virus in chicken eggs.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are recruiting 25,000 healthy American adults to receive either an experimental flu shot or a regular shot to see how effective the new approach is this flu season.

Competitor Moderna has tested its version on about 6,000 people in Australia, Argentina and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere. flu season and waiting for the results.

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