Every fall, doctors, health care providers, and public health experts begin reminding everyone that it’s critical to get the flu shot. This year, as we continue to cope with COVID-19, it’s even more important.
There are a number of reasons why the ongoing pandemic means you should make sure to get your flu shot as soon as possible, according to Waleed Javaid, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and an expert on infectious diseases.
For starters, if you become infected with COVID-19, getting the influenza virus as well can make a difficult situation even worse. Doctors saw patients in this situation at the beginning of the pandemic, and they know the combination of these two infections can make it more difficult to recover and can exacerbate some of the most serious symptoms, including difficulty breathing.
“COVID-19 and the flu are not a good combination,” Dr. Javaid says.
Fortunately, we have vaccinations for both the flu and COVID-19 that will help prevent you from experiencing the worse of either virus. In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strongly recommends that you receive the flu shot if you are eligible—even if you are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. And if you have not yet received the COVID-19 vaccine, or are eligible for a booster dose, you do not need to space out dosing, the CDC says you can receive both shots on the same day. The COVID-19 vaccine and the flu shot do have similar, mild side effects, which include fever, body aches, headache, and nausea. So, if you are concerned about side effects, the vaccines can also be taken on different days.
Face masks—which have become a wardrobe staple since the start of the pandemic—may do double duty by helping to reduce the risk of contracting both COVID-19 and the flu. But Dr. Javaid notes that additional measures are still warranted. This includes proper hand hygiene, avoiding those who have a respiratory illness, and getting your flu shot.
The CDC recommends getting a flu shot as early as September or October. But if you miss this window, it is not too late. You can get the shot as long as the flu is circulating, which is normally through early spring.
Another reason reducing the incidence of seasonal flu this year will be especially important is that it can be difficult to distinguish between the flu and COVID-19, according to Dr. Javaid. The symptoms are almost exactly the same: fever and chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, sore throat, and congestion or runny nose. You can read more about these similarities from the CDC. One potential difference is that if you are infected with COVID-19, you may experience a new loss of taste or smell. The similarities could result in confusion as doctors try to diagnose patients.
Of course the flu shot doesn’t guarantee you won’t get the flu. But the CDC estimates the vaccine each year typically reduces serious cases of the flu by 50 to 60 percent. For those who get the flu even though they have gotten the vaccine, the shot helps reduce the severity of the illness and avoid hospitalizations.
For those who may be wondering, there is no evidence that the flu shot can make you more susceptible to getting COVID-19. That being said, if you are infected with COVID-19 or the flu, the timing of your vaccination may need to be adjusted. If you are in this situation, Dr. Javaid says, you should contact your health care provider, who can advise you on the latest recommendations.