‘This year more than ever get flu shot,’ emergency room physician urges - MassLive.com

SPRINGFIELD - The Food and Drug Administration recently released flu vaccine lots for distribution by manufacturers, and Dr. Mark Kenton, chief of the emergency department at Mercy Medical Center, hopes the public will take notice when immunization shots are available for this year’s influenza season.

Now, more than ever, flu shots will be important as they are offered by health care providers and pharmacies, Kenton says.

Vaccination is particularly needed to avoid a flu infection during the coronavirus pandemic since there is currently no COVID-19 vaccine, Kenton stresses. “As soon as the flu vaccine is on the market ... people (should) make an appointment with their primary care physician to get it or when the clinics start to promote it.”

Complications caused by influenza as well as coronavirus disease 2019 can prove fatal and some populations are at increased risk.

The flu vaccine cannot prevent a COVID-19 infection, but it can protect against influenza viruses and weaken the symptoms from an influenza infection as well.

“If you have the flu and you are immune compromised and you end up getting exposed to COVID-19, my biggest concern is that co-infection component,” Kenton said. “If you have other (chronic diseases or conditions), like diabetes and hypertension, or are over 65, will that increase you overall mortality risk? We just don’t know yet what could happen with that.”

Staying home when sick, taking antiviral medications to help shorten flu illness and vaccination are key in treating, preventing and reducing the spread of flu virus, according to Kenton.

Wearing masks, social distancing and good hygiene are key to preventing the spread of COVID-19, and Kenton said these efforts may have helped reduce flu exposure this spring when such recommendations were being ushered in with the pandemic.

Kenton said his hope is “that we won’t see as much flu if people are masking the way we are recommending.”

“We had a really bad flu season last year with a lot of influenza B,” Kenton said. “When we went into quarantine, we really saw the flu dropped significantly.”

A moderate to severe flu season, coupled with more peaks in COVID-19 cases, could overwhelm the health care system, he cautioned.

Last year’s flu season, Kenton noted, started in early winter, with an unusual mid-season peak in December associated with influenza B viruses.

“We were seeing very high volume of patients in the emergency department,” said Kenton. “On average we would see 220 patients a day pre-COVID and during our peak flu season at the end of December and January, we would see 280, 290 patients a day, some 60 more patients a day during flu season.

" That is a significant volume of patients through the emergency department whether you see and discharge them or admit them if there are beds available,” he added. “My concern is that if we see COVID numbers increase as well and you have those co-infections it could overwhelm our health care system.”

Despite the recent uptick in cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, Kenton said he is “hopeful” such numbers will drop if people “stay vigilant.”

“People are getting tired of being cooped up and there is a lot of fatigue about what we have had to do for so many months,” said Kenton, referencing the public health emergency orders that require facial masks be worn in public spaces where social distancing is not possible. “People want to enjoy time with family and time out, but we have to remember that we still need to mask and social distance. We have to stay vigilant with that or we are going to end up seeing our numbers go back up and if that happens other things will shut down again.”

He added that the possibility of students returning to in-person learning at some point reinforces the importance of flu vaccination for anyone 6 months or older.

“Any type of closed environment where people are in close quarters together, we know flu infection can easily spread so schools are vectors for the transmission of influenza and taking it home and that is my concern about COVID as well,” Kenton said. “More than ever it is important to get the flu vaccine this year.”

Kenton reminds that COVID-19 can result in a “wide variety of symptoms.”

“I can look at a patient and say I think you have the flu based on clinical symptoms and what is highlighted in the community, but COVID has such a wide variety of symptoms that it is more clinically challenging for us,” Kenton said. “We tend with flu to see fever and body aches and fatigue. With COVID, we are seeing people and all they have are loss of taste and smell and other people have fevers and a cough and other people are short of breath and some people have it all and then the asymptomatic people who have nothing.”

While vaccines are being developed and different treatments, successful in some COVID-19 patients, applied, Kenton said it is important to “control what you can control.” That makes having a flu shot important as it can minimize the risk for COVID-19 as well as keep influenza at bay, he notes.

“I honestly hope we will see much less flu than we would in other years,” Kenton said. “I do not know this for certain, but just from the standpoint of how the flu virus spreads, wear a mask and the virus is less likely to spread to someone else.”

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