2020年流感疫苗接種策略:在流感季節(jié)早期接種疫苗

2020年流感疫苗接種策略:在流感季節(jié)早期接種疫苗

Flu shots will be in stock at doctors' offices, pharmacies and supermarkets by early September. And though what's normally thought of as flu season in North Americadoesn't really begin until October and peaks between December and February, because of changes wrought by COVID-19, now is the time to start thinking about when, how and where you'll get immunized against the flu this year.

到9月初，醫(yī)生辦公室、藥店和超市將備有流感疫苗。由于COVID-19造成的變化，北美通常認為的流感季節(jié)要到10月才開始，而在12月至2月之間達到高峰，但現(xiàn)在是時候開始考慮今年何時、如何以及在哪里接種流感疫苗了。

"If you usually get the shot at the office but you're working from home, for example, you'll need a new plan, says Lori Uscher-Pines, a senior policy researcher with the Rand Corp. "And if you usually drop in to the pharmacy or the supermarket for your shot while you're out and about anyway, you'll need a new plan this year if, these days, you're just not 'out and about.' "

美國蘭德公司的高級政策研究員洛里·厄舍-派恩說，如果你通常是在辦公室接種疫苗，但你是在家里工作，那你就需要制定一個新的計劃了。“如果你外出時經常去藥店或超市接種疫苗，那么今年你需要制定一個新的計劃，如果這些天你只是‘不外出’的話。”

But do make a plan. "No year is a good year to get the flu, but this year — with COVID-19 also raging — it's especially bad," says Mark Thompson, an epidemiologist in the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

但一定要制定計劃。疾病控制和預防中心流感部門的流行病學家馬克·湯普森說：“沒有哪一年是感染流感的好年頭，但是今年由于COVID-19也在肆虐，情況尤其糟糕。”。

"People who can avoid the flu will help reduce the burden on a U.S. health care system already overwhelmed by COVID-19," Thompson says.

湯普森說：“能夠避免流感的人將有助于減輕已經被COVID-19壓垮的美國衛(wèi)生保健系統(tǒng)的負擔。”

Emergency rooms and urgent care clinics are often flooded with flu patients during winter months, he explains. So getting a flu shot can help prevent those visits — and thereby prevent the co-mingling of flu patients and COVID-19 patients, who can infect each other and spread their viruses to other ER patients.

他解釋說，在冬季的幾個月里，急診室和急診診所經常擠滿了流感患者。因此，接種流感疫苗可以幫助預防這些探訪，從而防止流感患者和COVID-19患者混在一起，相互感染，并將病毒傳播給其他急診室患者。

"This year, more than ever, we're trying to get out the message that flu is no benign disease and you should do everything you can to prevent it," says L.J Tan, the chief strategy officer at the Immunization Action Coalition, a nonprofit group in St. Paul, Minn., that provides educational information for physicians and consumers on immunization.

“今年，我們比以往任何時候都更努力地向外界傳達這樣一個信息:流感不是一種良性疾病，你應該盡你所能來預防它。”J Tan是免疫行動聯(lián)盟的首席戰(zhàn)略官，這是一個位于明尼蘇達州圣保羅的非營利組織，為醫(yī)生和消費者提供關于免疫接種的教育信息。

In most years, some who get the flu would reasonably choose to ride it out, feeling miserable for a week or so, or even shorten the illness by taking one of several prescription drugs approved to treat the illness, says Dr. Steven Pergam, an associate professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

史蒂文·皮爾岡博士說，在大多數(shù)年份里，一些患流感的人會合理地選擇渡過難關，痛苦地度過一個星期左右，甚至可以通過服用幾種經批準用于治療這種疾病的處方藥中的一種來縮短病情，他是西雅圖弗雷德·哈欽森癌癥研究中心疫苗和傳染病部門的副教授。

But this year, "even people who never see a doctor for the flu might be prompted to book an appointment or head for the ER if they feel flu-like symptoms coming on," Pergam says.

但是今年，“即使是那些從來沒有看過流感醫(yī)生的人，如果他們感到流感癥狀出現(xiàn)，也可能會被提示預約或者去急診室，”皮爾岡說。

That's because the flu and COVID-19 can share many (though not all) symptoms, including fever, chills, cough, sore throat, muscle or body aches, headaches and fatigue. Loss of taste and smell, which can happen with COVID-19, does not occur with the flu.

這是因為流感和COVID-19有許多(盡管不是全部)共同的癥狀，包括發(fā)燒、發(fā)冷、咳嗽、喉嚨痛、肌肉或身體疼痛、頭痛和疲勞。在COVID-19中可能發(fā)生的味覺和嗅覺喪失，在流感中不會發(fā)生。