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 circumstances 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 proper time to get vaccinated in opposition to flu is true 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 cause to not get vaccinated.
“We now 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 steering, 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 Youngsters below 9 years outdated who’re getting vaccinated for flu for the primary time want two doses, spaced a month aside.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 college yr. Anybody age 65 or older also needs to take into account getting vaccinated in late summer season as properly, since influenza does begin circulating then and older persons are at increased threat of growing problems, being hospitalized, or dying from the flu. Lastly, pregnant ladies of their third trimester also needs to take into account getting vaccinated in July or August, so their our bodies can move on protecting antibodies to the newborn 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 relies on 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 effective match with circulating strains, then you’ll be able to anticipate 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 in opposition to the flu can defend you from different well being points as properly, equivalent to 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 suggest that older individuals who get vaccinated in late summer season, for instance, get boosted with one other dose later within the season. “We take into account them protected for the season,” he says. Plus, individuals age 65 and older usually obtain certainly one of a number of stronger flu vaccines to generate probably the most strong immune response; certainly one of them contains 4 occasions the quantity of immune-activating flu antigens. “They’re secure and efficient, and for individuals over 65, they’re the way in which 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 performed a examine displaying that individuals getting each photographs didn’t report any extra uncomfortable side effects—equivalent to sore arms, muscle aches, or fevers—than individuals who received them at completely different occasions.
And for individuals questioning if getting the 2 photographs on the identical day would possibly by some means yield weaker immune responses to each COVID-19 and influenza, “we now 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 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 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, because the 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 definitely not as secure,” says Jacobson. “Our vaccines nowadays are refined and designed to work with one another, and we now have good proof that they’re secure and efficient. Get all of the vaccines you’re due for.”
