Ask a health care provider when the very best time is to get your annual flu shot, they usually’re more likely to let you know that it doesn’t matter when it you get it—simply that you just get vaccinated.
However there’s a candy spot to optimize your immunity.
When is the optimum time to get the flu shot?
Flu season lasts from October to Might, and circumstances within the U.S. peak from December to February. That’s why the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends that folks get their flu vaccine by the tip of October, because it takes the immune system about two weeks to rev up its most response to the vaccine. This implies producing enough immune cells—together with antibodies—towards the virus. “The right time to get vaccinated towards flu is correct earlier than circumstances begin to take off,” says Dr. Kawsar Talaat, affiliate professor in worldwide well being on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg College of Public Well being.
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However the actuality is that pharmacies, clinics, and medical doctors’ workplaces cannot accommodate everybody flooding in on the identical time. So if you happen to’re on the pharmacy and there’s no line in September, there’s no motive to not get vaccinated.
“Now we have seen flu flow into as early as October, so it’s not too early to get vaccinated now,” says Talaat. And whereas safety from the vaccine begins to wane after three to 4 months, “it doesn’t go all the way down to zero.” Even when your safety begins to fade, you’ll nonetheless be protected.
There are some exceptions to that steerage, says Dr. Robert Jacobson, professor of pediatrics at Mayo Clinic. Kids beneath 9 years previous who’re getting vaccinated for flu for the primary time want two doses, spaced a month aside. For them, beginning in late July or August is sensible, particularly if mother and father need their kids to be vaccinated earlier than the beginning of the varsity yr. Anybody age 65 or older also needs to contemplate getting vaccinated in late summer time as effectively, since influenza does begin circulating then and older persons are at increased danger of growing problems, being hospitalized, or dying from the flu. Lastly, pregnant girls of their third trimester also needs to contemplate getting vaccinated in July or August, so their our bodies can go on protecting antibodies to the infant in utero. This safety is essential since infants usually don’t get their first flu vaccine till they’re about six months previous. If they’re born in the course of the flu season, the safety they obtain from their moms serves because the strongest protection towards influenza of their first few months of life.
How efficient is the annual flu shot?
That is dependent upon the yr. Every spring, well being consultants predict which influenza strains will probably be circulating and inflicting illness, giving producers sufficient time to incorporate them within the vaccines. Typically, says Talaat, if the shot is an efficient match with circulating strains, then you’ll be able to count on your shot to guard you from getting flu about half the time. And if you happen to do get contaminated, you’re extra more likely to have a milder bout of illness than if you happen to hadn’t been vaccinated. You are additionally much less more likely to be hospitalized or die from influenza: dangers that particularly have an effect on older individuals.
Research present that being vaccinated towards the flu can defend you from different well being points as effectively, akin to coronary heart assaults and strokes. Flu infections can worsen irritation, which may contribute to coronary heart illness and different circumstances.
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Even with waning, the vaccine continues to supply good safety, says Jacobson—sufficient that well being officers don’t advocate that older individuals who get vaccinated in late summer time, for instance, get boosted with one other dose later within the season. “We contemplate them protected for the season,” he says. Plus, individuals age 65 and older usually obtain one in all a number of stronger flu vaccines to generate probably the most sturdy immune response; one in all them consists of 4 instances the quantity of immune-activating flu antigens. “They’re protected and efficient, and for individuals over 65, they’re the best way to go,” says Jacobson.
Can I get the flu shot and COVID-19 vaccine on the identical time?
Sure, and also you should not hesitate to take action. Talaat has carried out a research displaying that folks getting each pictures didn’t report any extra unintended effects—akin to sore arms, muscle aches, or fevers—than individuals who acquired them at completely different instances.
And for individuals questioning if getting the 2 pictures on the identical day would possibly by some means yield weaker immune responses to each COVID-19 and influenza, “now we have not discovered any interference with flu and COVID-19 vaccines,” says Jacobson. By not getting the vaccines on the identical day, “you aren’t doing all your immune system any favors.”
Even if you happen to’ve already had the flu, or if it’s later within the season (say January or February), it’s not too late to get vaccinated. There are often a number of strains of influenza causing-disease, and the shot would defend you towards the strains you haven’t gotten but. In actual fact, flu vaccines generate a extra wide-ranging immune response towards a number of influenza strains included within the shot than a pure an infection would, for the reason that an infection is just a single pressure of the virus. “It is a good instance the place pure an infection is not so good as vaccination, and positively not as protected,” says Jacobson. “Our vaccines today are refined and designed to work with one another, and now we have good proof that they’re protected and efficient. Get all of the vaccines you’re due for.”
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