Amid coronavirus pandemic, doctors say: Get your flu shot

Winter is coming, which means flu season will soon be upon us.

The CDC estimates that the flu leads to millions of doctors visits and more than 100,000 hospitalizations every year.

With the US’s healthcare system already stretched thin by hundreds of thousands of coronavirus cases, adding a bad flu season on top of that could “be a breaking point,” says Libby Richards, an associate professor at Purdue University’s School of Nursing.

Flu season runs from about October to April every year, and this year, the CDC expects to produce 20 million more vaccines than for the 2019-2020 year.

Richards says that the best time to get a flu shot would be September, before cases start growing.

If you’re worried about spending time in a clinic, Richards says that clinics probably adhere to a much stricter set of requirements for sanitation.