Can I Have Flu And Covid
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Yes. It is possible to have flu, as well as other respiratory illnesses, and COVID-19 at the same time. Health experts are still studying how common this can be.
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Some of the symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are similar, making it hard to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. Diagnostic testing can help determine if you are sick with flu or COVID-19.
How Effective Is It
Flu vaccine effectiveness can change from year to year. At the time of writing this article, the 20202021 flu season is underway. In the coming months, scientists will begin to get estimates of the effectiveness of the 20202021 flu vaccine.
However, the does currently have information about the estimated effectiveness of the vaccines from past flu seasons.
The chart below shows the effectiveness of the flu vaccine for the previous five flu seasons.
| Flu season |
| 26 percent | 42 percent |
When looking at vaccine effectiveness studies, its important to remember that the results can be influenced by several factors. These factors can include the population studied, the specific flu season, and how the study was conducted.
What About People Who Get A Seasonal Flu Vaccine And Still Get Sick With Flu Symptoms
There are several reasons why someone might get flu symptoms, even after they have been vaccinated against flu.
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What Are The Different Types Of Influenza Viruses
There are four main categories of influenza viruses, two of which are linked to seasonal epidemics.
Influenza A strains
Influenza A strains are the most common flu linked to epidemics. There are dozens of subtypes, but a few have emerged in recent years as the most common culprits of sickness. For the 2020-2021 flu season, the CDC made updates to vaccines for both H1N1 and H3N2.
Influenza B strains
There are fewer strains of influenza B viruses, but these are also linked to the seasonal flu. This year, the CDC made updates to B/Victoria-lineage vaccines.
Influenza C strains
Influenza C is linked to mild respiratory illness and is generally not the cause of severe flu cases or epidemics.
Influenza D strains
Making The Flu Vaccine: A Race Against The Clock
- Your Health
- Making the flu vaccine: a race against the clock
For days, at the sites of Sanofi Pasteur in Val de Reuil in France, Swiftwater in the United States, Shenzhen in China and Ocoyoacac in Mexico, a fleet of trucks delivers a valuable and fragile cargo: several hundred thousand chicken eggs. In January the race against the clock for the manufacture of the flu vaccine in the Northern Hemisphere begins while that for the Southern Hemisphere is not yet over. In February, the WHO makes its predictions on the dominant strains after months of monitoring the circulation of viruses throughout the world. The vaccine will be manufactured according to the WHOs recommendations and must be delivered before the start of the influenza season.
The time between the manufacture of a vaccine and its delivery is about two years but for the flu vaccine, everything must move very quickly, with only a few months between the identification of circulating viral strains and the provision of the vaccine in pharmacies. For the Northern Hemisphere, the countdown begins in February, upon receipt of the WHOs recommendations. The teams then go to work to meet a challenge being constantly renewed with a new race beginning in September for the Southern Hemisphere.
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How Flu Vaccine Virus Strains Are Selected
Every year, in late February or early March, before that years flu season ends, the FDA, the World Health Organization , the CDC, and other public health experts collaborate on collecting and reviewing data from around the world to identify the flu viruses likely to cause the most illnesses during the next flu season.
Following that process, the FDA convenes its vaccines advisory committee, consisting of outside experts, to discuss the WHO recommendations and to consider which flu viruses are expected to circulate in the U.S. The committee also reviews data about which flu viruses have caused illnesses in the past year, how the viruses are changing, and disease trends for the U.S. The FDA takes that information into account before it selects the virus strains for FDA-licensed manufacturers to include in their vaccines for use in the U.S.
The closer the match between the virus strains chosen for the vaccine and the circulating strains causing disease during flu season, the better the protection that the flu vaccine provides. Although the vaccine and viruses may not be an exact match in some years, that does not mean the vaccine is not benefiting people. Available data show that the vaccine can reduce the severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick.
Where Can I Get A Flu Shot
Veterans enrolled in VA health care can get a flu shot at their nearest VA health care facility. Veterans can also choose from more than 60,000 community locations to get their no-cost flu shot. Visit to learn more about how to find a current in-network location near you. If you are not enrolled in VA health care, find out if you qualify.
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Pandemic 2009 Briefing Note 7
It takes approximately five to six months for the first supplies of approved vaccine to become available once a new strain of influenza virus with pandemic potential is identified and isolated. These months are needed because the process of producing a new vaccine involves many sequential steps, and each of these steps requires a certain amount of time to complete. The vaccine development process from start to end is summarized below.
Activities at WHO Collaborating Centers
1. Identification of a new virus: As part of a network set up for surveillance, laboratories around the world routinely collect samples of circulating influenza viruses and submit these to WHO Collaborating Centres for Reference and Research on Influenza for analysis. The first step towards the production of a pandemic vaccine starts when a Centre detects a novel influenza virus that differs significantly from circulating strains and reports this finding to WHO.
Vaccine virus is grown in eggs because the flu virus grows well in them, and eggs are readily available.
3. Verification of the vaccine strain: After its preparation, the hybrid virus needs to be tested to make sure that it truly produces the outer proteins of the pandemic strain, is safe and grows in eggs. Upon completion of this process, which takes roughly another three weeks, the vaccine strain is distributed to vaccine manufacturers.
Activities at vaccine manufacturers
This process takes two weeks.
The Flu Shot Is Effective
The effectiveness of the vaccine varies from season to season. It depends on:
- how well the vaccine matches with the circulating flu viruses
- the health and age of the person getting the flu shot
The viruses circulating in the population can sometimes change during the time it takes to produce a vaccine. When this happens during the flu season, the flu shot may not work as well as expected.
It’s also important to remember that the flu shot protects against several different flu viruses each season. The seasonal flu shot can still provide protection against the remaining 2 or 3 viruses, even when theres:
- a less-than-ideal match
- lower effectiveness against one virus
If you do get the flu, the flu shot may reduce the severity of flu-related complications.
Getting your flu shot is still the most effective way to protect yourself against the flu and flu-related complications.
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What Happens After A Recommendation Has Been Made About Which Viruses Should Be Included In The Seasonal Flu Vaccine
As soon as recommendations have been made about what viruses should be included in the vaccine, private sector manufacturers begin the process of producing vaccine. In fact, some manufacturers may start growing one or more viruses for use in production of vaccine even before a WHO recommendation or FDA decision is made on the vaccine viruses. This gives manufacturers more time to make vaccine ahead of the season the more time a manufacturer has to make vaccine, the greater the number of doses that can be produced.
Are You Contagious After A Flu Shot If You Experience Side Effects
The mild symptoms you might experience after getting vaccinated are an immune response, not the signs of an illness. Thats because even though the flu vaccine contains inactive virus, your immune system still recognizes it as an intruder and creates antibodies. This antibody creation is what can spur side effects, as well as get your body ready for a possible exposure to an active virus.
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How Does The Flu Spread
The flu is contagious, which means it spreads from person to person. It mostly spreads through droplets in the air when people with flu cough, sneeze, or talk. It can spread from up to six feet away. Although it isn’t as common, the flu can also spread from surfaces for example, if you touch something the virus is on and then touch your nose, mouth, or eyes.
It’s possible to spread the flu before you feel sick and when you have symptoms. Typically, people with the flu can spread it a day before, and up to a week after feeling sick. Young children and people with weakened immune systems may be able to spread the flu for even longer. If you or someone you know is sick with the flu, take steps to help prevent spreading the disease
Is The Flu Shot Safe
Yes, the flu shot is both safe and effective. Most people have no serious side effects or allergic reaction to it.
Some people may have redness or swelling on their arm where the shot was given. A very small number of people may get minor body aches, a headache, or a low fever that lasts a day or two.
The Health and Medicine Division of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviewed more than 1,000 research articles and concluded that few health problems are associated with vaccines. Learn more about these findings.
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A Needle In A Haystack
The challenge starts with the virus itself.
An expert shape-shifter, the flu is constantly changing mutating as it replicates itself in ways that allow its strains to get past our body’s immune defenses even if we’ve had the flu before, or if we roll up our sleeves for the shot each fall.
The result? It’s a bit of a war between us and the virus, says David Wentworth, director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Influenza in the U.S., which is run out of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
This battle plays out not only within the bodies of people who come down with the flu’s signature fever, chills and muscle aches, but also in laboratories around the world, where researchers must work quickly to analyze how the flu virus is changing in order to predict what it might do next.
The worldwide system of surveillance starts when specimens from sick patients are sent to the lab for testing. Of those, about 7,000 end up at the laboratory run by microbiologist John Barnes, who leads the CDC’s influenza genomics team.
“We’re always busy, and we’re always getting new viruses to work on, Barnes says. He and his team perform year-round genetic sequencing to determine how flu viruses are behaving, both in terms of which strains are infecting people and other characteristics, like whether a specimen shows signs of resistance to the antiviral drugs that can treat the flu.
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Why Do You Need A Flu Vaccine Every Year
You need a flu vaccine every year for two reasons. First, flu viruses change and the flu vaccine is updated each year to target the flu viruses that are anticipated to spread that year. Second, the protection you get from a flu vaccine lessens with time, especially in older adults. Getting your flu vaccine every fall gives you the best protection from that year’s flu viruses.
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Why The Flu Vaccine Is Reformulated Every Year
Welcome to National Influenza Vaccination Week, established in 2005 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote vaccination awareness to the general public. In that spirit, Dr. Sebeen Razzaq-Ahmed and the team here at East Meadow Medical P.C. remind you to get your annual flu vaccine. You may be one of the many people we hear ask why they need to get vaccinated each year. Well, were here to answer that for you!
Its no secret that influenza, commonly called the flu, is inconvenient, nasty, and downright deadly. The 2017-2018 flu season was among the worst on record, afflicting and killing more Americans about 80,000 than in any season dating back more than three decades. Because the flu is so common, not to mention so deadly, we always recommend that anyone whos able to gets an updated vaccine each year.
All Right How Long Does The Flu Shot Last
The short answer: six months. But the long answer is a little bit more complicated, in part because every body is different. As a general rule the flu shot is most effective in the first three months, people still have protection after six months, Vanessa Raabe, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone Health, tells Health.
Knowing how long the flu shot lasts plays a pretty important part in determining when to get your flu shot each year. That part requires a little bit of math . Flu season, in general, lasts from October to May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . But flu season actually peaks sometime between December and March, Frank Esper, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic tells Health.
That means you should definitely get the flu shot before flu season peaks. You should get it “at least two weeksbut preferably four to have full immunity,” says Dr. Esper. You need a little preplanning time to get your shot, to have that shot develop its effectiveness, he adds. That means you should plan on getting a new flu shot in September or October, Dr. Esper says. The CDC also recommends getting a flu shot by the end of October.
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Who Should And Who Should Not Get A Flu Vaccine
Everyone 6 months of age and older should get an influenza vaccine every season with rare exception. CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has made this recommendation since the 2010-2011 flu season.
Vaccination to prevent flu and its potentially serious complications is particularly important for people who are at higher risk of developing serious flu complications. See People at Higher Risk of Developing Flu-Related Complications for a full list of age and health factors that confer increased risk.
Vaccine Supply And Distribution
How much influenza vaccine is projected to be available for the 2021-2022 influenza season?
Flu vaccine is produced by private manufacturers, so supply depends on manufacturers. Vaccine manufacturers have projected that they will supply the United States with as many as 188 million to 200 million doses of influenza vaccine for the 2021-2022 season. These projections may change as the season progresses. All flu vaccines for the 2021-2022 season will be quadrivalent . Most will be thimerosal-free or thimerosal-reduced vaccine and about 18% of flu vaccines will be egg-free.
Where can I find information about vaccine supply?
Special Consideration Regarding Egg Allergy
People with egg allergies can receive any licensed, recommended age-appropriate influenza vaccine that is otherwise appropriate. People who have a history of severe egg allergy should be vaccinated in a medical setting, supervised by a health care provider who is able to recognize and manage severe allergic reactions. Two completely egg-free flu vaccine options are available: quadrivalent recombinant vaccine and quadrivalent cell-based vaccine.
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