Flu Season May Be Rough In PA As it Collides With COVID: Experts

PENNSYLVANIA — Flu season is approaching in Pennsylvania, and health experts are urging everyone over 6 months, with rare exceptions, to get their flu shots.

Walgreens, CVS and other pharmacies in Pennsylvania are already scheduling appointments or offering shots on a walk-in basis as health officials worry about what a worse-than-usual flu season in the Southern Hemisphere portends for the United States.

Australia, for example, is experiencing its worst flu season in five years. The flu season runs from April-October in the Southern Hemisphere. New Zealand also saw its highest rates of influenza in two years.

The flu season, which in the United States starts in October, is coming as COVID-19 continues to circulate, fueling concerns of a “twindemic.” Various forecasts point to an uptick in COVID cases, though likely not as severe as last year’s omicron surge.

Pennsylvania saw 85,266 during the 2021-22 flu season, which saw "flurona" cases involving infections of both COVID-19 and the flu complicate an already difficult time of year. "Flurona" is not a distinct disease or virus, but simply a portmanteau used to describe individuals who have both infections at once. Such co-infections can increase both the disease symptoms and mortality rate of the virus, officials said.

U.S. health officials “better pay attention” to the flu season in the Southern Hemisphere, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Bloomberg News as he prepares to exit the office he’s held for nearly 40 years.

That part of the world “has had a pretty bad flu season, and it came on early,” Fauci said. “Influenza — as we all have experienced over many years — can be a serious disease, particularly when you have a bad season.”

If the seasonal flu and accelerating rates of COVID-19 collide, the upcoming winter would be the first U.S. health officials have had to contend with two serious respiratory diseases circulating together at higher levels. Fauci and other infectious disease experts have warned about a twindemic since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The flu season typically starts in October, and it takes about two weeks after vaccination for flu antibodies to develop, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That makes the timing of flu shots important.

It’s safe to get flu shots and COVID-19 vaccinations at the same time, according to the CDC. That includes the newly authorized omicron-specific booster shot. Health officials recommend the booster for most Americans.

The CDC offers guidance on who should get a flu shot. In general, children, older people and those with underlying conditions such as asthma, COPD and other respiratory problems are the most vulnerable to the flu.

The CDC said people 65 and older should get one of three preferential vaccines — Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent vaccine, Flublok Quadrivalent recombinant flu vaccine and Fluad Quadrivalent adjuvanted flu vaccine.