Why You Need a Flu Shot More Than Ever This Year | AFC Urgent Care Memphis

The start of fall is here—and with it, we’re coming closer and closer to the start of flu season. In a normal year, the flu causes millions of medical visits in the United States and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that nearly everyone age 6 months and older be vaccinated against the flu each year. But this year, getting your flu shot is especially important. Read on as our team at AFC Urgent Care Memphis shares some insight about why that is.

Why the Flu Shot Is Needed Each Year

When you think about shots, you probably think of your childhood. While it’s true that we get most of our vaccinations during childhood, though, there are some shots you need later in life, too.

The flu shot is one such vaccination. Unlike many common vaccines, the flu vaccine is needed annually. That’s because different strains of the flu are prominent each year. The flu shot is reformulated each year to match up with the strains of the flu predicted to be most common.

That’s why you can’t get one flu shot in life and be done with it. You need one each year to protect against that year’s versions of the flu.

Why the Flu Shot Is So Important This Year

OK, so you know you need an annual flu shot, but why is this year so important? It’s not because the flu is predicted to be particularly strong.

Instead, it’s because the flu season, which begins in late October and continues through March or April, will coincide this year with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The two conditions share many symptoms, making diagnosis of the illnesses more complicated and reliant on effective testing. But bigger picture than that, if there are outbreaks of both the flu and COVID-19, there will be more medical visits and hospitalizations, which could potentially stress out our medical system.

When to Get the Flu Shot

To protect yourself for the duration of the flu season, the CDC recommends that you receive a flu shot by the end of October. It takes about two weeks for your body to build up antibodies after receiving the vaccine, so this allows your body to build defenses before the flu season is in full swing.

Need to get a flu shot? Stop by AFC Urgent Care Memphis today!