AdventHealth Morning Briefing: Flu season during the COVID-19 pandemic

September 04, 2020 — Today’s AdventHealth Morning Briefing featuring Dr. Tim Hendrix, medical director at AdventHealth Centra Care, urged residents to be prepared for the dual threat of influenza and COVID-19 during this year’s flu season.

“We are dealing with a ‘Twindemic’ as some people are calling it … COVID-19 and the seasonal flu, at the same time. Every year, flu puts a strain on our health system. We are prepared for that,” Hendrix said.

While masking, frequent hand washing and social distancing remain effective against the spread of COVID-19 as well as the flu, the risk of co-infection of flu and COVID-19 is possible.

Highlights from the briefing include:

• Get a flu shot: “If you have those antibodies from a vaccine your symptoms are not going to be as severe. The virus doesn’t last as long, people who get the flu are less likely to be hospitalized, and they get better quicker.”
• You can’t get sick from a flu shot: “The vaccine is a dead virus. It’s impossible for you to get an infection from a flu shot because the virus is not alive.”
• Not all vaccines are the same. “There’s something for everybody this year. There are high-dose vaccines specifically formulated for older patients over the age of 65 who may not be able to mount the same number of antibodies as a younger person. If you don’t like shots and you are between the ages of 2-40, you can get the nasal spray vaccine.”
• Centra Care will start offering flu shots in the next few weeks. Visit CentraCare.org for more details.

Hendrix said there are lower rates of flu in the Southern Hemisphere right now, which is encouraging, but that should not make us overconfident in the United States.

We encourage you to refer to the video on the Life at AdventHealth Central Florida page to pull direct quotes from Hendrix. The video may be downloaded by following this link: https://vimeo.com/452693108#t=203s