Editorial: To avoid the flu’s potential potent punch, get that jab

A year removed from the mildest flu season on record, expectations are that the virus will likely rebound with an extra punch this year.

At least that’s the prediction of many in the medical community, who urge everyone to get that flu shot.

“The worry is that we are out of isolation and we didn’t get some of the natural immunity from last year, so we could see a surge in flu,” Dr. Robert Klugman, the medical director of employee health at UMass Memorial Health, told the Boston Herald.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu cases and deaths last year were the lowest since influenza reporting started in 1997. There were about 700 flu deaths in the United States last year. By comparison, there were 22,000 flu deaths in 2019, CDC data show.

Of course, last year at this time, most of us were taking precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19. Those same preventive measures, including social distancing and masking, also kept the flu at bay.

However, the good news-bad news result of few flu cases meant a lack of exposure — and immunity.

“Reduced population immunity due to lack of flu virus activity since March 2020 could result in an early and possibly severe flu season,” read a recent notice from the CDC.

And as Dr. Klugman reminds us, “the flu is no joke. Thousands of people die every year from the flu.”

Dr. Daniel Solomon, infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that other viruses such as rhinovirus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have already made a comeback and hit earlier than usual.

That’s been substantiated by an August report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The paper indicated that pediatricians were surprised to be treating respiratory viruses that usually occur in the fall.

Jonathan Miller, chief of primary care at Nemours duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, said the viruses have been “really exploding,” with 127 positive RSV tests in July, the most since February 2020. He thinks it means that the flu could also make an early entrance and quickly spread through children, who are good at spreading flu to adults.

Miller recommends that children get flu shots as early as possible this year.

Ironically, Massachusetts called off its flu-shot mandate for public-school students in January, due to the no-show flu season.

In August of last year, the state mandated that all students attending in-person classes, with some exceptions, get a flu shot to head off a possible “twindemic” of two severe respiratory illnesses during the coronavirus crisis.

The potential for that same “twindemic” also exists this fall and winter.

And even though there’s still a mask requirement for public schools’ students and staff, Massachusetts’ education establishment might be wise to again require flu shots for its elementary and secondary students.

It might also want to revisit its policy of relaxing the mask requirement for schools that have attained at least an 80% COVID-19 vaccination rate.

At present, only Ashland High School and Hopkinton High School have submitted documentation attesting that at least 80% of their students and staff are vaccinated for COVID-19.

And since it’s virtually impossible to distinguish between flu and coronavirus symptoms, it’s important to be inoculated against both viruses.

And that can be accomplished with one-stop jabs. According to the CDC, flu shots and the coronavirus vaccine can be administered in the same visit.

Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the flu’s incapacitating effects.

Get that jab.