Our Interview with CDC Director Robert Redfield
By Sharon Holbrook
Flu season is nearly right here. We spoke with Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), about the easiest way to maintain your loved ones wholesome this fall and winter with the double threats of COVID-19 and influenza. Spoiler: Get a flu shot!
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Q: Everyone seems to be understandably centered on COVID-19 this 12 months. How ought to we be eager about and making ready for the upcoming flu season?
Redfield: Many individuals proper now are questioning: “Ought to I get a flu shot?” We actually wish to get the American public to some extent the place they’re wanting on the flu vaccine with confidence. After we have a look at it proper now, lower than 50% of all People get vaccinated in opposition to flu. Final 12 months, 52% of 13- to 17-year-olds received vaccinated. The height actually is 6 months to age 4, when about 73% of fogeys get their children vaccinated in opposition to flu, after which it falls progressively.
Q: What are the risks of going unvaccinated for flu?
Redfield: Over 360,000 folks died from flu within the final 10 years. So it’s not like that is some benign factor, however folks don’t appear to have a way of urgency generally in terms of flu. And but now we have a flu vaccine, which we all know actually protects you in opposition to the deaths from flu.
Yearly, we see a whole lot of youngsters die from flu. I misplaced certainly one of my youngsters from flu early after start. It was very laborious on my spouse and me. And I feel it could have been tougher if I had identified that it was preventable and I simply didn’t take the time to get my child vaccinated in opposition to flu. So I’m actually hoping dad and mom will benefit from the significance of getting flu vaccine this season specifically.
It’s actually essential for fogeys to offer that management for his or her teenagers on the significance of getting a flu vaccine. Vaccines are crucial biomedical advance that we’ve ever had. Actually, it’s the one instrument we actually have that has been proven to have the ability to remove illness in our world. It’s actually crucial.
Q: How do you anticipate COVID to have an effect on our flu season this 12 months?
Redfield: Hopefully by the top of the autumn, early winter, we’ll have a brand new COVID vaccine, and hopefully that can have an effect on the attitudes of individuals concerning the significance of vaccination.
As we open our colleges and we totally embrace the suggestions that we’ve put out about face coverings and masks, social distancing, washing your palms, staying away from crowded conditions—these may have a big affect on the flu season. So, on the one hand, we might have a really troublesome time with COVID and flu on the similar time. Alternatively, we could actually make a huge impact on negating flu when folks embrace our COVID mitigation methods. We’re seeing this in Australia proper now, the place their flu outbreak is actually markedly decreased now due to people utilizing the mitigation methods that we put ahead for COVID.
Another excuse to get a flu vaccine throughout COVID? To keep away from overwhelming a few of our healthcare amenities. Assets could also be restricted for aged people which have important COVID infections as a result of now we have youthful, in any other case wholesome folks which can be getting flu and having to go within the hospital.
Q: What about hesitancy due to COVID to enter a health care provider’s workplace or one other place the place flu pictures are being administered?
Redfield: I feel now we have to be aggressive and attempt to counter that. We’re making an attempt to reverse that in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Globally it’s an enormous, large deal. We’ve seen measles vaccination charges and the polio eradication program get curtailed. And these are actual threats globally—120 million youngsters are in danger to die from measles.
Q: What’s your message for fogeys of youngsters?
Redfield: I think {the teenager}’s determination to get flu vaccine is considerably influenced by the mother or father. If I had one message for fogeys, it’s that flu vaccine is actually a vital public well being intervention. So I’m actually hoping dad and mom will benefit from the significance of getting flu vaccine this season specifically.
Fast Flu Info
Within the 2018-2019 flu season—the latest information out there—the CDC estimates that:
- 35.5 million folks received sick with influenza
- 16.5 million folks noticed a well being care supplier for influenza
- 490,600 folks have been hospitalized for influenza
- 34,200 died from influenza
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Can I get a free flu shot?
Most insurers cowl flu vaccines for gratis. If not, or for those who’re not insured, you might be able to get a free shot by means of the federal authorities’s Vaccines for Children program. For extra info, go to
bit.ly/vaccinesforkids.
