The COVID-19 pandemic is about to collide with flu season. Here’s what to expect.
Flu shots (nasal and otherwise) will be particularly important this year. (CDC/)Now is about the time that the annual flu shot reminder articles start popping up. It’s rarely on people’s minds in late August or even in September, but that’s actually the perfect time to get vaccinated. It takes a few weeks for immunity to build, so by the time the virus really starts circulating you’re already protected.This year, though, we all have another disease on our minds, and the growing awareness of two overlapping, widespread viruses circulating at the same time has epidemiologists and other public health experts concerned.“I’m very worried about this,” says Eleanor Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University School of Public Health. “I would feel more secure if we were taking strong COVID-19 precautions, but with schools and universities and many workplaces opening back up, I’m not at all optimistic about the fall and winter.” Here...