Ask a health care provider when the most effective time is to get your annual flu shot, they usually’re more likely to inform you 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 Could, and instances within the U.S. peak from December to February. That’s why the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends that individuals 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 adequate immune cells—together with antibodies—in opposition to the virus. “The right time to get vaccinated in opposition to flu is correct earlier than instances 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 when you’re on the pharmacy and there’s no line in September, there’s no purpose to not get vaccinated.
“We’ve 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 right 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. Youngsters below 9 years outdated who’re getting vaccinated for flu for the primary time want two doses, spaced a month aside.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 youngsters to be vaccinated earlier than the beginning of the varsity 12 months. Anybody age 65 or older also needs to take into account getting vaccinated in late summer time as effectively, since influenza does begin circulating then and older individuals are at increased threat of growing problems, being hospitalized, or dying from the flu. Lastly, pregnant girls of their third trimester also needs to take into account getting vaccinated in July or August, so their our bodies can cross on protecting antibodies to the child in utero. This safety is necessary since infants usually don’t get their first flu vaccine till they’re about six months outdated. If they’re born in the course of the flu season, the safety they obtain from their moms serves because the strongest protection in opposition to influenza of their first few months of life.
How efficient is the annual flu shot?
That depends upon the 12 months. Every spring, well being specialists predict which influenza strains might be circulating and inflicting illness, giving producers sufficient time to incorporate them within the vaccines. Usually, says Talaat, if the shot is an efficient match with circulating strains, then you may anticipate your shot to guard you from getting flu about half the time. And when you do get contaminated, you’re extra more likely to have a milder bout of illness than when you 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 folks.
Research present that being vaccinated in opposition to the flu can defend you from different well being points as effectively, resembling coronary heart assaults and strokes. Flu infections can worsen irritation, which might contribute to coronary heart illness and different situations.
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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 take into account them protected for the season,” he says. Plus, folks age 65 and older usually obtain considered one of a number of stronger flu vaccines to generate probably the most strong immune response; considered one of them consists of 4 instances the quantity of immune-activating flu antigens. “They’re protected and efficient, and for folks 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 examine exhibiting that individuals getting each pictures didn’t report any extra uncomfortable side effects—resembling sore arms, muscle aches, or fevers—than individuals who received them at totally different instances.
And for folks 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 of your immune system any favors.”
Even when you’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 normally a number of strains of influenza causing-disease, and the shot would defend you in opposition to the strains you haven’t gotten but. The truth is, flu vaccines generate a extra wide-ranging immune response in opposition to 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. “This can be a good instance the place pure an infection is inferior to vaccination, and definitely not as protected,” says Jacobson. “Our vaccines as of late 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 might be due for.”
