The United States is preparing for the flu season and the government on Thursday called on citizens to get vaccinated against this disease and also against COVID-19.
“I get it: We are all tired of hearing about vaccines,” said the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky. But getting vaccinated “is doubly important than this year,” added the official, who was inoculated at the beginning of the week as she has done every year since she studied medicine in 1995. “We are preparing for the return of influenza.”
Influenza cases fell to historic levels worldwide due to the pandemic, as restrictions from the coronavirus helped prevent the spread of this and other viruses, but with the opening of schools and businesses, the resumption of flights International and a decrease in the use of masks, there is no way to predict how bad the flu season will be for the United States in the winter.
US officials are concerned that a different respiratory virus, called RSV, which generally strikes children in the winter, reappeared last summer as soon as people began to stop wearing face masks.
“Is that a harbinger of a worse flu season? We don’t know, but we certainly don’t want a twin pandemic, both COVID and influenza, “said Dr. William Schaffner of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
CDC recommends an annual flu vaccine for almost everyone, starting at 6 months of age. The flu is especially dangerous for older adults, children under 5 years of age, people with chronic health problems such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, and during pregnancy.
Last fall, about the same number of Americans overall got vaccinated against influenza as before the pandemic – nearly half of the eligible population, according to CDC data released Thursday, but there was a slight drop in vaccines against childhood flu last year and among the Hispanic and black populations. Last year, 43% of the African-American population and 45% of the Hispanic population received a flu vaccine compared to 56% of the white population.
CDC expects vaccine manufacturers to deliver between 188 million and 200 million doses of influenza.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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