Flu season has officially arrived and unfortunately COVID-19 is also still very much alive. Flu shots have always been recommended, but this year getting yours and having each of your family members receive theirs may be more important than ever given that the symptoms of COVID-19 and the common flu are very similar.

I’m sure you have a lot of questions and concerns like is COVID-19 the flu? Can the flu lead to COVID-19? Does the flu make COVID-19 worse if I get it? Does COVID-19 make the flu worse if I get it? To clear up any misconceptions, here are some of the basics as to how getting your flu shot impacts our fight against COVID-19:

• Getting a flu shot will only help reduce your chance of getting the flu. This helps with COVID-19 to not overrun our hospitals and doctor’s offices with flu patients which, coupled with COVID-19 patients, could cause emergency rooms to fill up quickly causing some not to get treated.
• COVID-19 is NOT the flu. It is true that COVID-19 can present many of the same symptoms of the flu to include chills, fever, muscle aches, etc. but the virus and resulting disease is much different to your body. Getting a flu shot will not reduce your risk of contracting COVID-19 and it will not vaccinate or otherwise treat COVID-19.

With all this being said, click here for all of the information about why the flu shot is so important this year.  Dr. Charles Chiu, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, lays it all out very nicely in the article.

Please get your flu shot this year and encourage your family and others to get theirs. Not only will the flu shot protect you from the flu and all of the symptoms associated with it, you could also save the life of someone else by freeing up our medical system. Click here to see the flu shot options offered by Heaven Hill. As always, stay safe and healthy and let Heaven Hill Health & Safety know if you have any questions.