Get your flu shot and get it early, experts urge, as new season gets underway

If you’re still harboring bad memories of last year’s flu season, you’re hardly alone.

It was a notably ferocious season, with influenza viruses and complications from them killing 80,000 Americans in late 2017 and early 2018 — the highest death toll from flu in 40 years — and hospitalizing 900,000 more, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Seasonal flu deaths typically average between 12,000 and 56,000.

While it’s too early to know how this flu season will shake out, health officials are more insistent than ever that anyone who is able to get a flu shot this year get one. And the time to do so is now, they say, as the first few cases of respiratory illnesses are just now being reported.

The flu vaccine remains the most effective defense against the flu, said Rebecca O’Donnell, director of epidemiology at Albany Medical Center. Usually anywhere from 40 to 60 percent effective, the vaccine also shortens the duration and lessens the severity of the illness among those who do become infected, she said.

“We recommend people be vaccinated before fall really, before the season really begins, because it takes two weeks after vaccination for your body to produce the antibodies that protect against infection,” she said.

It’s too soon yet to know how severe this year’s flu will be, but some idea can be gleaned from the spread of the virus in the Southern Hemisphere, where flu season stretches from June through October. Where last year’s season was particularly vicious below the equator — a harbinger of what was to come up north — this year’s has been “very mild,” the World Health Organization reported last month.

Nevertheless, memories of the prior season’s flu created a rush on vaccines in the Southern Hemisphere and caused shortages in some places.

“I have no concerns about supply,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve been able to get the vaccine just fine so far.”

Getting a shot early can help prevent the flu from spreading among communities, she noted. Even if you’re relatively healthy, inoculating yourself could help prevent the spread to others who are particularly at risk of complications from flu, which include the very young, very old, sick and pregnant.

Interestingly, she noted, flu-related admissions to Albany Medical Center last season were highest among the 18- to 64-year-old age group — a sign, perhaps, that this group was less vaccinated than other groups.

“People who are especially vulnerable to flu tend to be more educated about the vaccine, and get it through their primary care providers,” she said.

You can get the shot at most doctors’ offices and pharmacies, including drug and grocery stores such as CVS, Rite Aid, Price Chopper/Market 32 and ShopRite. Some employers also offer free clinics.