You might not have the ability to forestall catching a chilly or the flu, however you possibly can significantly cut back your possibilities and reduce the chance that you will have a extreme case for those who do get sick. The properly established recommendation meant to maintain you wholesome additionally protects others by decreasing the unfold of those ailments.
Get a Flu Shot
“The one greatest option to cut back the chance of seasonal flu and its doubtlessly critical issues is to get vaccinated annually,” according to the CDC.
Many well being professionals, together with infectious illness specialist Steven Gordon, MD, and infectious illness medical pharmacist Kaitlyn Rivard, PharmD, each on the Cleveland Clinic, say the best time to get vaccinated is in September or October, when new annual variations of the vaccines sometimes turn out to be obtainable in North America. However don’t fret for those who missed that window, as a result of the second greatest time is “now.”
Elena Diskin and Lisa Sollot, two respiratory specialists on the Virginia Division of Well being, and Christy Grey, the director of the Division of Immunization there, all agree that there is nonetheless time to get the annual flu vaccine. “The season runs from October by means of the tip of April,” they wrote in an e-mail, including “we sometimes see probably the most flu exercise in January and February.” So sure, it is nonetheless worthwhile to get a flu shot if you have not had one but.
Flu Vaccines Can not Give You the Flu
Whereas it is potential to really feel unwell after getting a flu vaccine, you can’t get the flu from it. In public health information about flu vaccines final up to date in 2024, the CDC confirms that, “Flu vaccines can’t trigger flu sickness. Flu vaccines given with a needle (i.e., flu photographs) are made with both inactivated (killed) viruses, or with solely a single protein from an influenza virus.” The nasal spray vaccine, which is for folks between the ages of two and 49, and which you could possibly administer at residence, “accommodates dwell viruses which might be attenuated (weakened) in order that they won’t trigger sickness,” in response to the CDC.
After receiving a vaccine, it takes as much as two weeks for it to have its full impact, nonetheless. Meaning for those who had been uncovered to the flu virus both proper earlier than or as much as two weeks after receiving the vaccine, you would get sick, but it surely would not be as a result of vaccine.
Flu Vaccines Are Extremely Efficient at Stopping Extreme Sickness
The flu vaccine modifications yearly primarily based on which strains of the virus consultants assume can be prevalent, and whereas it is not foolproof, it’s extremely efficient at stopping extreme sickness. Within the 2024-2025 season, for instance, flu vaccines had been 56 percent effective, which is greater than it had been in virtually 15 years.
“Vaccine effectiveness is measured by evaluating the frequency of well being outcomes (e.g., symptomatic sickness, hospitalization, demise) in vaccinated and unvaccinated folks in the actual world,” say Diskin, Solot, and Grey on the Virginia Division of Well being. Effectiveness is totally different from efficacy, which measures outcomes in managed trials.
“In plain language, [vaccine effectiveness] describes how a lot much less doubtless a vaccinated individual is to get sick in comparison with an unvaccinated individual, primarily based on real-world information,” says Sai Paritala, an assistant professor on the College of Nebraska Medical Heart Faculty of Public Well being and former epidemiologist.
