image description

Health officials: It’s time to give flu vaccine another shot

September 27th, 2019 by WCBC Radio

The flu forecast is cloudy and it's too soon to know if the U.S. is in for a third miserable season in a row, but health officials said Thursday not to delay vaccination.

While the vaccine didn't offer much protection the past two years, specialists have fine-tuned the recipe in hopes it will better counter a nasty strain this time around.

"Getting vaccinated is going to be the best way to prevent whatever happens," Dr. Daniel Jernigan, flu chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press.

 

Last year's flu brought double trouble: A new strain started a second wave of illnesses just as the first was winding down, making for one of the longest influenza seasons on record. The year before that marked flu's highest death toll in recent decades.

So far, it doesn't look like the flu season is getting an early start, Jernigan said. The CDC urges people to get their flu vaccine by the end of October. Typically flu starts widely circulating in November or December, and peaks by February.

Leave a Reply