An infectious disease expert in Vancouver is urging the public to “run” and get this season’s flu shot as soon as it’s available.
After a nearly non-existent flu season in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Dr. Brian Conway warns that B.C. residents can expect a sharp increase in flu cases this year.
“We’re in touch with each other, more interpersonal contact … so that will lead to more transmission,” said the medical director of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre.
“There’s (also) less community-based immunity because we had no flu season to speak of last year to build that.”
In 2020, Conway said there were only 18 influenza cases in B.C., compared with more than 4,000 in the last pre-pandemic flu season.
Because flu vaccines are usually based on the previous year’s outbreak, he added, the lack of cases also means this year’s flu vaccine is a bit of an “educated guess.”
Nevertheless, Conway urged everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine and a flu shot, in order to avoid a “twindemic” in which both viruses run rampant, side by side.
“The illness of COVID and influenza are very similar, one to the other, so people will have difficulty differentiating which one they have if they get sick,” said Conway.
It’s not the time to be “tough” and work while sick, he added, encouraging everyone to stay home for a case of the sniffles.
Health professionals don’t yet know if you can get COVID-19 and the flu at the same time, he added, or how those conditions could exacerbate each other.
The B.C. CDC is expected to provide more information about flu vaccine availability in October.