ThePatriotNurse: CDC's Fall Warning: 'Worst Fall Ever" and the Vaccine (Video)

by N.Morgan

In her latest and informative video, ThePatriotNurse discusses the warning issued from the CDC this week, calling the upcoming Fall infections disease season likely to be the worst we’ve ever seen.

Many are advocating for vaccine compliance on the heels of it. We evaluate this and seek to build a plan.

As reported by Market Watch: While the world watches and waits for a COVID-19 vaccine to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control, there’s another inoculation poised to be just as important this fall.

That would be the flu shot, as America’s annual influenza season usually begins in October before peaking between December and February. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is very worried about what is going to happen as the pandemic that’s killed at least 200,000 Americans since March bleeds into flu season, which is responsible for between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths a year.

CDC director Robert Redfield warned in a WebMD interview on Wednesday that America is bracing for “the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we’ve ever had.”

This is not because cooler weather somehow makes the coronavirus worse, or that the summer’s heat kills the virus, which has been a common misconception about the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19. Rather, fall and winter become influenza’s time to shine.

“We’re going to have COVID in the fall, and we’re going to have flu in the fall. And either one of those by themselves can stress certain hospital systems,” Redfield said, noting that many hospitals have already been overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus patients. There have also been reports of hospitals in New York, Texas and Arizona calling in refrigerated trucks to serve as temporary morgues to handle the number of dead bodies during the pandemic. And the flu has seen between 140,000 and 810,000 people hospitalized each year since 2010.

Both outbreaks at the same time could be devastating this fall. But one of them — influenza — actually has a vaccine and treatment that can keep it under control. The problem is, less than half of the country (47%) got a flu shot last year. The CDC normally recommends that 60% to 70% of the country get the influenza inoculation to keep the virus under control. This year, Redfield said that he’s pushing for 65% compliance.

And while the CDC normally purchases about 500,000 doses of the vaccine each year for uninsured adults, this year Redfield said that it’s ordered an extra 10 million doses, for more than 190 million doses total, to encourage everyone to get vaccinated against the flu.

Don’t let reports that vaccines have been less effective in some flu seasons put you off. (For example, the 2017–18 vaccine’s efficacy rate was just about 36%, which means it cut flu-related doctor visits by that amount.) The vaccine can still lower your risk of complications or dying from the flu, even if you do get sick.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYf0XacrXizu9KI1kgqq3g​​​​​​

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cdc-director-warns-america-is-in-for-the-worst-fallweve-ever-had-2020-08-13

Stories Contributed by N. Morgan