Apparently, the flu shot for the previous 2021-2022 flu season turned out to be a poor match for combating the actual flu virus. While generally, the yearly flu vaccine can reduce the risk of serious illness (leading to hospitalization) by 40-60%, this past year experts declared the vaccine was “essentially ineffective.”  Thankfully, however, just as with the 2020-2021 season, this past flu season turned out to be mild. Scientists guess that, due to the Omicron Covid surge in the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022, which led to renewed efforts to mask and social distance, we once again dodged the concern of a “twindemic.” But the less-than-effective flu shot this past year underscores the need for more effective flu vaccines, and scientists hope that some of the new mRNA technology developed to combat Covid may lead to more effective flu vaccines as well.

What will happen once we reach the fall of 2022? Well, experts tell us that the flu is not going anywhere– it will continue to be with us and cause serious illness and death for years to come. And given that 50-60% of US adults still don’t take the flu shot, this means that going forward we will continue to have a large percentage of the population at serious risk of flu and its potentially harmful-even deadly- consequences. Furthermore, early cases from Australia this year have reflected an alarming flu uptick, with one expert decrying, “There’s absolutely no doubt we’re in for a big season.” In fact, case numbers for flu this year in Australia are on track to equal the 2019 flu season, a record year for flu there. This is especially worrisome for us in the United States since we have a large percentage of the population lacking immunity, especially given the two previous mild seasons. A CDC advisory panel has recently recommended that older adults (65 and older) opt for more potent flu shots this year, given that the regular flu shot last year didn’t offer sufficient protection. It’s hoped that one of these new stronger options (either Fluzone High-Dose, Fluad with an immune booster, or Flublok, which is made with insect cells instead of chicken eggs) will provide seniors (who may have weakened immune systems) longer and better protection from the flu.

As an extra incentive, several new research studies provide even more reason to take the flu shot. First, from research published in Nature comes word that the flu shot may provide additional protection from Covid. It appears that ramping up the immune system to fight influenza may also help your body fight off Covid. Such protection seemed to have occurred among health care workers who were studied for Covid infections after receiving flu shots (but before Covid vaccines were available). Also, new research published in JAMA Network Open found that adults inoculated against the flu had a lower risk of heart complications. The study found that “older adults who obtain a flu shot are less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke and are at lower risk for death from heart-related health events in the year after getting vaccinated.” Finally, in a rather provocative finding, researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston found that people who received at least one influenza vaccine were 40% less likely than their non-vaccinated peers to develop Alzheimer’s Disease over the course of 4 years. Moreover, the strength of this protection against Alzheimer’s increased as participants received more annual flu shots. So the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was lowest among those who consistently received the flu vaccine every year. If that doesn’t cause you to roll up your sleeve each fall it’s hard to imagine what would. To find out more, put down your thermometer and read more here.