Massachusetts students will get a flu vaccine this year, according to an announcement made by the state's health officials.
Students over age 6 months in Massachusetts will be given a flu vaccine as the state gears up for seasonal influenza this fall while managing the Covid-19 outbreak.
Massachusetts students getting the flu vaccine must be attending state child care, preschool, kindergarten, grade school, colleges or universities. Massachusetts expects students to be vaccinated by Dec. 31, unless the student presents a medical or religious exemption.
Meanwhile, home-schooled students and students at colleges and universities who are in the school for the semester are also exempt. College students who participate in any activities inside the school “even once,” must get a vaccine by December 31.
According to Massachusetts, the immunization is required for students returning to school in January.
“The new vaccine requirement is an important step to reduce flu-related illness and the overall impact of respiratory illness during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday.
Getting a flu vaccine
The US has been preparing for both the influenza season and the coronavirus pandemic. Fewer than half of adults and about 60% of children in the US usually get the flu shot each year, according to CDC.
Data showed that the flu affects 9 million to 45 million Americans every year. This leads to at least 140,000 hospitalizations as well as 12,000 to 61,000 deaths.
Health experts like White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield have called on Americans to get vaccination against the flu this season.
“Every year, thousands of people of all ages are affected by influenza, leading to many hospitalizations and deaths,” said Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences.
“It is more important now than ever to get a flu vaccine because flu symptoms are very similar to those of Covid-19 and preventing the flu will save lives and preserve health-care resources.”
A difficult autumn
To address the predicted increase in demand for a flu vaccine this year, the four manufacturers of flu vaccines announced their plan to distribute almost 200 million doses to the US, which is a 19% increase from last season.
A difficult flu season may further burden hospitals, many of which are already stretched thin as they attend to coronavirus patients.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, is one of the epidemiologists who believe that the country may experience an increase in Covid-19 cases as schools plan to conduct in-person classes and the weather keeps people at home, where the virus spreads faster.
State leaders, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said it could be a difficult autumn and winter with two viruses spreading at the same time.
“You’re in the flu season. Everybody is sneezing, everybody is coughing and everybody has a runny nose. Who has the flu and who is possibly Covid positive? It becomes a much more difficult calculus,” Cuomo said during a news briefing on Monday.
