The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services this week issued an advisory encouraging Michigan residents to get vaccinated against the flu before the season hits its peak. That’s as a new variant has been seen increasing infection rates in Europe, causing an earlier and more intense start to the flu season there.
Berrien County Health Department epidemiologist Sara Palmer tells us the new strain is known as subclade K.
“The good news is, because the United Kingdom saw cases much earlier, they’ve actually been able to conduct a study on vaccine effectiveness based off a bunch of these new subclade K flu infections, and what they’ve found is that the vaccines are still effective against preventing severe illness and hospitalizations,” Palmer said.
Palmer says the vaccination rate in Michigan has been down, with 21% of Michiganders getting the shot and just 18.5% of Berrien County residents. She notes Berrien County had a severe flu season last year.
“We really need to avoid that and vaccination is the way we’re going to do that.”
Palmer says there’s a lot of hesitancy to get the shot, but the Berrien County Health Department has staff available who can answer any questions someone might have.
“We know the flu vaccines aren’t as good as we’d like them to be at preventing people from becoming sick, but they’re very good at keeping you out of the hospital, the ICU, and preventing death. And it appears from the UK study, on these early cases at least, that this vaccine is still going to provide the typical level of protection against hospitalization and severe illness.”
The Berrien County Health Department offers the flu shot by appointment. You can learn more here. You can also get the flu shot at most pharmacies, and of course, doctor’s offices.
