Will We See An Early Flu Season In Tampa Bay?

The FluView of 2022 and 2021 was recently put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Already, the southeast and south-central areas of the country are seeing high levels of influenza activity.

Though flu numbers were lower last year, doctors hypothesize that this is because folks were practicing more social distancing, and since that is not as much in place, we will likely see an uptick in the spread of the flu.

Dr. Jill Roberts is with the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, and she said,
"The number of people who were vaccinated against flu last year was relatively low. So that kind of creates a perfect storm. We have no immunity from past infection. We have no immunity from vaccinations. And now here we are getting an early flu season."

The CDC recommends that people receive their flu shots as soon as they can.

Roberts continued, "So then that means you have got to get ahead of it. And so we don't want to wait till it gets to that high point and then start taking the actions because now it's too late. So if I were to get my flu shot today, it's going to be a full two weeks. So I'm talking Halloween before I actually have protection from that vaccine. So you don't want to wait."

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