What happens if you catch flu and COVID-19 at the same time?
Two infectious disease experts explain why this is not the year to blow off your flu shot.
It’s a familiar rite of autumn: Neighborhood pharmacies hang their “Flu Shot Available Here” signs. Primary care providers fill our email inboxes with reminders to get our annual vaccinations.
This year is different. We’re facing a “twindemic” of both the seasonal flu and COVID-19, and research shows it’s possible to get sick with both respiratory illnesses at the same time. Unfortunately, history proves people haven’t done a good job of taking the flu seriously enough. Just 45 percent of adults in the United States got the flu shot last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even though the seasonal version of the disease is deadly, killing an average of 37,000 people every year over
