Get your flu shot, experts say, amid worries of a tough season ahead

Local health experts said signs are pointing toward a possible severe influenza season this fall and are urging Long Islanders to get their flu shots.

“We can’t tell the future until it comes upon us, but there are a couple of different factors that are lining up and increase the potential for a pretty bad flu season,” said Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health.

Hirsch noted that Australia had its worst flu season in five years. The Southern Hemisphere, which is finishing its winter, can sometimes help predict what the flu season will look like in the Northern Hemisphere.

In addition, COVID-19 pandemic restrictions designed to keep people safe from that virus also protected many people from influenza over the last two years. Masking and social distancing now largely have been eliminated, except in medical settings.

'A lot of us have not been exposed to flu for a couple of years, meaning that our immune systems have kind of forgotten a little bit about this.'

-Dr. Bruce Hirsch, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health.

Credit: Northwell Health

“A lot of us have not been exposed to flu for a couple of years, meaning that our immune systems have kind of forgotten a little bit about this,” Hirsch said. "The flu vaccine is recommended for everyone over the age of six months in our society. And for those people who have extra vulnerabilities, and those of us who are around people who have extra vulnerabilities, it's particularly important to get this degree of protection, for ourselves and for the people we care about.”

The 2020 flu season was eclipsed by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as there were just 4,921 lab-confirmed influenza cases in New York State reported that year.

Last year’s flu season lasted unusually long, from October to June, with two spikes in cases, in December and then April. There were 125,709 lab-confirmed cases, state figures show, but experts said most of those illness were relatively mild.

During the last pre-pandemic season, 2019-20, there were more than 157,000 lab-confirmed flu cases in the state.

Warnings about the flu season came from health officials on Wednesday. State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett reminded people to get their shots, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, suggested everyone who was eligible should get both their COVID-19 and flu vaccines at the same time in the coming weeks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get the flu vaccine once a year, optimally by the end of October.

Since people 65 years of age and older are at higher risk of getting seriously ill from the flu, the agency suggests they take one of three suggested vaccines specially formulated for them with a higher dose.

According to the CDC, only 34.7% of adults between ages 18 and 49 received their flu shots during the 2021-22 season. That figure was 50% for adults between ages 50 and 64, and 67.7% for adults 65 and older.

A little more than half of children under 18 received flu shots as of April, the agency reported.

Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief, of Huntington Village Pediatrics, said she has been giving her young patients flu shots for several weeks and plans to start administering the updated COVID-19 booster shots as well.

“Children under 5 are particularly susceptible to serious consequences from the flu,” she said. “Outbreaks commonly occur in preschool and school-aged children, and they spread quickly among themselves and family members.”

Meltzer Krief said there is concern that this could be the winter the long-feared twindemic of flu and COVID-19 hits.

'With restrictions being loosened and some return to normalcy, we are expecting an increased spread and return of viruses like the flu.'

-Dr. Eve Meltzer Krief of Huntington Village Pediatrics

Credit: J. Conrad Williams Jr.

“With restrictions being loosened and some return to normalcy, we are expecting an increased spread and return of viruses like the flu,” she said. “The vaccine can dramatically decrease the risk of serious consequences.”

Jean Formisano, manager of the CVS Pharmacy in Center Moriches, said people are starting to come in earlier looking for their flu shots, even by the end of August.

“We try to get as many people as we can before it gets crowded, and people don’t really want to be in crowded places,” she said.

Formisano said pharmacy staff also tries to clear up any misconceptions people have about the flu vaccine.

“The most common one I hear is that the flu shot gives you the flu,” she said. “It’s made either from inactivated virus or proteins from the virus, so it’s impossible for you to get the flu from the flu vaccine. You may get side effects or you may come in contact with the flu at the same time you got your shot. But you cannot get the flu from receiving the flu vaccine.”

By Lisa L. Colangelo

lisa.colangelo@newsday.com@lisalcolangelo

Lisa joined Newsday as a staff writer in 2019. She previously worked at amNewYork, the New York Daily News and the Asbury Park Press covering politics, government and general assignment.