Flu Season

As flu season quickly approaches and the COVID-19 pandemic is still running rampant in our communities, emergency physicians are urging people to get their flu shots. The upcoming flu season combined with the pandemic can overwhelm our health-care systems.  

The co-chair of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, Dr. Atul Kapur, stated “The importance of getting a flu shot is higher than ever, even if you’ve never gotten one before. This is the year to make sure you get your flu shot.”

Between 2018 and 2019 there were 490,600 hospitalizations due to influenza. COVID-19 has resulted in 397,801 people being hospitalized since March in the US alone. When dealing with both the influenza and COVID-19 hospitals will struggle to keep up with the patients that are coming in to seek treatment resulting in many people not getting adequate care and in turn resulting in deaths.

Read more about if you’re at greater risk this flu season.

Reference:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/emergency-physicians-worry-combination-of-covid-19-and-flu-season-will-overwhelm-system-1.5116092

https://covidtracking.com/data/national/hospitalization

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html