Young children may need multiple flu shots this year
Top US pediatricians are saying some young children may need two flu shots this year after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted vaccination schedules last year and amid reports report a more peculiar flu season in the Southern Hemisphere.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) announced Tuesday that children six months to eight years old who receive less than two flu shots during their lifetime will double this time around. The two injections should be given about a month apart.
It was introduced in response to the declining demand for flu shots over the past two years. More than half of Americans skipped or delayed vaccinations last year because the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic caused many people to completely forget about the annual virus.
This year’s flu season has also been particularly devastating in the Western Hemisphere, where they will be leaving winter and entering spring. Australia in particular has had a much tougher season than expected. A shortage of flu shots and poor immunity due to limited exposure to the virus in recent years are thought to be responsible for this increase.
The White House is also asking Americans to double the number of shots, proposing both the newly approved Omicron COVID-19 booster shot and the flu shot this fall.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that people between the ages of six months and under eight years get two flu shots – one month apart – this year if they haven’t had at least two shots in their lives.
The AAP recommendations are not entirely unprecedented. In 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told parents to give their children two flu shots if they hadn’t been vaccinated before.
The guidance has been in effect ever since, but has largely been ignored and disappears without notice each year.
It is being revived this year after a two-year period in which the flu was largely forgotten, as the fall in the winters it usually dominates is instead defined by outbreaks of Covid.
In 2020, the flu is virtually non-existent. Pandemic guidelines combined with virus intervention from Covid have caused common viruses to fall off the radar.
Entering 2021, some fear that a ‘pandemic’ will emerge, as the combination of flu and Delta variant will ravage across the country.
Despite these warnings, a report by the American Heart Association found that 60% of Americans delayed or chose not to get a flu shot last year.
Instead, Omicron broke out in late November, wiping out both the flu and Delta.
However, Covid is now more under control than before. Case figures have stalled in recent months, and newly approved Omicron-appropriate injections could also limit the spread of the highly infectious virus.
The White House is hoping that people will be willing to get both photos. Dr Ashish Jha, the Biden Administration’s pandemic response coordinator, said on Tuesday: ‘I truly believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for injections. flu room and one for Covid injection.’
Officials in the Southern Hemisphere are starting to sound the alarm about the upcoming flu season.
This year, Australia has experienced its worst flu season in half a decade, with peak case rates three times higher than normal.
In New Zealand, this year’s case figures have returned to pre-pandemic levels after two years of significant declines.
“The Southern Hemisphere has had a pretty bad flu season and it’s coming early,” Dr Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told Bloomberg.
‘The flu – as we’ve all experienced it for many years – can be a dangerous illness, especially when you have a bad season.’