There were concerns that this year’s flu season was going to be a tough one, given the reduced social mixing during the pandemic which intended to keep infections of Covid-19 at a minimum. It wasn’t just Covid-19 that was kept at bay by quarantining, though - social distancing has led to lower levels of natural immunity when it comes to this year’s flu, especially when it comes to children below the age of five.
UKHSA has warned that the H3N2 influenza subtype is circulating worldwide, with early waves in Australia and other countries south of the equator. At the same time, there are growing levels of Covid-19 circulating. Steve Russell, the NHS director for vaccinations and screening, has urged people to ‘come forward for vaccines in order to protect themselves and those around them’, adding that this winter ‘could be the first time we see the effects of the so-called twindemic’, referring to flu and Covid-19.
That all sounds very scary, but Mr Russell is right - vaccines can help curb the effects of flu season. Early evidence from Australia has suggested that the current flu vaccines are well matched to the influenza subtype in circulation, providing effective protection against the ‘particularly severe illness’ that H3N2 can cause.
All primary school children and some secondary school students are eligible for the flu vaccine this year, and it will be administered at school by nasal spray. For children aged to 3, GP surgeries are offering the spray.
If you’re eligible for a vaccination but you can’t face the GP, try contacting your local pharmacy to find out what they are doing about vaccinations. Many community pharmacy teams are trained to give you your flu vaccine, and in a lot of cases you won’t have to spend time in a waiting room in order to get it.
You can also ask your local pharmacy about Covid booster jabs. Over two million of these have already been given out to patients as Covid infection numbers begin to rise again, with 40650 people testing positive in England in the seven days up to and including 24th September - an increase of 42% on the week before. ‘Nobody expects Covid-19 to be the killer it was in 2020 and 2021. However, during those surges, healthcare workers feared having to battle a twindemic: Covid-19 and influenza at the same time. Luckily, that didn’t happen.’
The easiest thing we can all do to keep the possibility of a twindemic as low as possible is to do what we can to make sure everyone who can be vaccinated against flu or Covid-19 has been vaccinated - so if you or someone you know is eligible but unvaccinated, now is the time to pop into your local pharmacy and change that.
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Make sure you set aside some time to get vaccinated against flu and get a Covid booster if you’re eligible. Giving your local pharmacy a call, or even popping in, will give you access to the knowledge of your community pharmacy team, set up to help you at a time that’s convenient for you.