Opinion | When Should You Get Your Flu Vaccine?

Like many healthcare workers, I am required to get a flu shot by the end of October each year. Every year, I wait until the last day I can get vaccinated.

That’s because many studies have shown the effectiveness of influenza vaccination. waste away significantly As with the COVID-19 vaccination, over time, especially in high-risk people. After just a few weeks, antibodies produced in response to influenza vaccination reach their highest levels. You don’t want your antibodies to plateau in September and October and then drop as you approach the reliable winter flu peak.

Still, tens of millions of Americans heeded public health messages and started getting vaccinated as soon as possible, starting in September. Currently, one-quarter of older adults in the United States receive a flu shot each year. Their bodies are filled with new antibodies induced by the vaccine and are ready to defend against any influenza virus they encounter.

That’s the problem there is no fight for them to earn wages.

Seasonal influenza levels remain steadily high in the United States low At this time of year. Levels may begin to increase in November, but in most years they only really increase in December or later. In the first week of October last year, the number of weekly hospitalizations due to influenza exceeded 44. lower The final peak was, as expected, in late December.

Why doesn’t the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise people to wait until late October or even early November each year?

CDC epidemiologists are chasing the wrong results. They seem to focus on one metric: vaccine uptake, the percentage of the population vaccinated against influenza each season. Instead, we should focus on something else: the rate of avoidance of severe disease.