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The seasons haven’t changed yet, but it’s already time to start thinking about your flu shot for this upcoming influenza season. The CDC has released its recommendations for this year and our local health care systems and providers are gearing up to begin the battle to prevent and treat this yearly scourge.

Getting your annual flu vaccine is the first and most important step you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones from catching and spreading this disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get a flu shot every year, particularly babies and the oldest among us.

It’s especially important for people at a high risk for flu complications and their close contacts to receive the flu vaccine every year. Ideally, you should plan on getting your flu shot by October since the illness can start circulating then.

Flu season usually peaks in January or February, but that doesn’t mean you should wait until then to get your shot – it takes two to four weeks to develop immunity after vaccination, so for full protection throughout flu season, you should consider getting vaccinated as early as September.

According to the CDC, getting vaccinated by October would ensure that as many people as possible would be protected before flu season begins. But some people may be skeptical about receiving their flu vaccine this year.

Last year, the CDC announced the vaccine was not fully effective in protecting the community against all strains of influenza. As a result, there was a significant drop in the number of people that received flu shots.

Although there is always the potential for the flu vaccine to not fully protect against all of the strains each season, that doesn’t negate the importance of a flu shot every year. The vaccine is designed to protect against the flu viruses that research shows will likely be the most common during the season. Experts are tasked with picking which viruses to include in the vaccine many months in advance — this ensures there’s enough time to produce and deliver the vaccine to the community prior to flu season.

Unfortunately, flu viruses change constantly from one season to the next or even within the course of one flu season; that’s what happened last year.

Despite this possibility, getting an annual flu shot is definitely worth it.

The antibodies your body makes in response to a vaccine for one flu virus can sometimes protect you from a different, but related virus. Additionally, even if the flu shot ends up being not a “good” match for viruses circulating, it will still protect you from some of them.

The flu vaccine contains three or four flu viruses, two that are different from last year. So even if it’s a less-than-ideal match or has a lower effectiveness against one flu virus, it may still protect against other viruses.

Now, let me be clear. Skipping the vaccination is not smart — because the risk of either developing a serious reaction to the shot, or of wasting the effort because the viruses covered are the wrong ones — is much smaller than the big risk of getting a dangerous case of the flu, especially in the young or old.

Jenny McCarthy is wrong. The anti-vaccine propagandists are wrong. The paranoiacs who think the government and all established authority is out to get us are wrong (at least about the flu vaccine).

Please talk to your health care provider and make an active decision about flu vaccination, and do it soon while you can get the best protection for the longest duration.

Alfred Casale To Your Health
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_casale3.jpg.optimal.jpgAlfred Casale To Your Health

By Alfred Casale

To Your Health

Dr. Alfred Casale is chairman of surgery for the Geisinger Heart Institute, co-director of the Cardiovascular Service Line for the Geisinger Health System and Associate Chief Medical Officer for the Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. Readers may write to him via [email protected].