North-central Iowans recommended to get flu shot by end of the month

MASON CITY — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people get vaccinated for the upcoming influenza season by the end of October.

HyVee Chief Medical Officer Dr. Daniel Fick says it’s good to get a flu shot now to give your immune system a chance to get ready.  “The flu vaccine is geared every year for those strains that the CDC thinks will be circulating.  You need to get a flu vaccine every year because there’s different strains, and then our immunity kind of disappears over time. Particularly the very young children and elderly people that are at risk for being  immunocompromised —  pulmonary, cardiac disease — those are the people we really want to try and protect.”

Fick says you want to get vaccinated so you aren’t unknowingly spreading it around.  “It’s really important to not only protect yourself, but protect those around you with the vaccine. We know that vaccines will cut your risk dramatically for being sick. If you do happen to get sick, if you do happen to get the virus from hospitalization and even from death. Your immunity gets boosted much better with a vaccine than just waiting to get the virus, and then also with the vaccine you won’t get all the sickness that comes along with the virus.”

Fick says it’s always hard to know what kind of a flu season we’ll have here in north-central Iowa, but one indicator shows it might be a tough one for people.   “The information coming from the southern hemisphere which is the opposite season from us shows again that it was a tough flu season down there, so typically that means it’s going to be here too. Probably the best prediction that they have at this point is it’s going to be an above-normal period of winter/spring with the virus.”

HyVee stores will have drive-through flu shot clinics coming up on Tuesday.