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Getting a flu shot this year is especially important to help prevent what experts call a “twindemic” with COVID-19, says a Beaumont Health doctor.
As of Tuesday, confirmed cases of COVID-19 statewide rose to a total of 149,392 with 7,053 deaths, according to numbers reported by the state. The trend shows an increase, with 1,586 new cases on Tuesday and 22 more deaths.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health got his own flu shot late last month, according to the Associated Press.
“There’s considerable concern as we enter the fall and winter months and into the flu season that we’ll have that dreaded overlap” of flu and the coronavirus, Fauci said.
Dr. Matthew Sims, director of infection disease research at Beaumont, said it’s important people get their influenza vaccines.
Both the flu and COVID-19 are respiratory illnesses that spread easily and could break out at the same time.
“Individuals who test positive for one may be more susceptible to contracting the other,” Sims said in a statement. “By itself, the flu can be extremely taxing to individuals and health care systems, but in combination with a second surge of COVID-19, the risk is that much greater.”
Further, there is concern that infection of one of the diseases makes people more vulnerable to the other, he added.
Some data, preliminary and not definitive at this point, suggest flu vaccine provides some protection against COVID-19, Sims said.
“We aren’t exactly sure why it works,” he said. “It could have something to do with priming the immune system to respond to COVID-19 and boosting immunity. It’s certainly not going to hurt.”
Dr. Sims typically gets his flu shot in late October to maximize protection during the peak flu season from November through March. However, he got his vaccine earlier this year.
The flu vaccine has up to four different strains of flu that scientists believe are likely to be circulating this flu season.
Even if the vaccine isn’t an exact match, it causes the body to produce an immune response that limits the severity of the illness.
“Even when (the vaccine) doesn’t prevent illness,” Sims said, “it often lessens the symptoms and it’s still the best tool we have at containing the damage.”
Last year’s flu season caused up to 56 million cases of the illness and about 740,000 people were hospitalized.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, last year’s flu resulted in from 24,000 to 62,000 deaths.
Flu shots are available from primary care doctors, Beaumont Urgent Care locations, drug stores such as CVS, and Walgreen, and some Kroger and Meijer store locations.