SAN ANTONIO — With flu season quickly approaching, many people are eager to get their flu shot. But some are concerned they won't be able to tell the difference between possible side effects of the shot and the coronavirus.
“We’ve been doing flu shots now for 2 weeks or so and it’s been busy - quite busy, actually,” said Medical Director at Christus Pediatric Physician Group, Dr. Juan Ferreris.
Ferreris said he is seeing a lot of people eager to get their flu shots as early as possible.
“There’s no doubt that there seems to be a greater interest, at least in our patient population in pediatrics, to get them done earlier.” He said.
He said some typical questions he gets about the flu shot are taking on a different tone this year.
“A common question we get is, ‘How will I be able to tell the difference if I’m getting sick from something else versus some of the flu shot side-effects?’” he said. “It becomes a little more difficult during COVID, because everybody’s very sensitive in many ways to, ‘Oh, my goodness. Do I have COVID? Am I getting sick? Is this my first day of illness? Should I call in to work?' And then, of course, 'Everybody’s being screened at work.’”
Ferreris said that though there are concerns, there are ways of telling the difference between side-effects of the flu virus and coronavirus symptoms.
“If you’ve got fever with cough and shortness of breath, that’s more likely to be something else. Could be COVID, could be something else. But it’s not likely to be flu-shot related,” he said.
Ferreris says there is encouraging news out of countries in the southern hemisphere, which experiences their flu season ahead of the United States.
“What we’ve seen in the southern hemisphere, as we’ve been looking at it, (and I’ve been looking at it) is a reduction of flu in general - probably in relation to the things that we use to mitigate COVID are the same things that mitigate flu.”