2020年流感疫苗接种策略:在流感季节早期接种疫苗

2020年流感疫苗接种策略:在流感季节早期接种疫苗

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，医生办公室、药店和超市将备有流感疫苗。由于COVID-19造成的变化，北美通常认为的流感季节要到10月才开始，而在12月至2月之间达到高峰，但现在是时候开始考虑今年何时、如何以及在哪里接种流感疫苗了。

"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.' "

美国兰德公司的高级政策研究员洛里·厄舍-派恩说，如果你通常是在办公室接种疫苗，但你是在家里工作，那你就需要制定一个新的计划了。“如果你外出时经常去药店或超市接种疫苗，那么今年你需要制定一个新的计划，如果这些天你只是‘不外出’的话。”

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.

但一定要制定计划。疾病控制和预防中心流感部门的流行病学家马克·汤普森说：“没有哪一年是感染流感的好年头，但是今年由于COVID-19也在肆虐，情况尤其糟糕。”。

"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.

汤普森说：“能够避免流感的人将有助于减轻已经被COVID-19压垮的美国卫生保健系统的负担。”

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.

他解释说，在冬季的几个月里，急诊室和急诊诊所经常挤满了流感患者。因此，接种流感疫苗可以帮助预防这些探访，从而防止流感患者和COVID-19患者混在一起，相互感染，并将病毒传播给其他急诊室患者。

"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，我们比以往任何时候都更努力地向外界传达这样一个信息:流感不是一种良性疾病，你应该尽你所能来预防它。”J Tan是免疫行动联盟的首席战略官，这是一个位于明尼苏达州圣保罗的非营利组织，为医生和消费者提供关于免疫接种的教育信息。

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·皮尔冈博士说，在大多数年份里，一些患流感的人会合理地选择渡过难关，痛苦地度过一个星期左右，甚至可以通过服用几种经批准用于治疗这种疾病的处方药中的一种来缩短病情，他是西雅图弗雷德·哈钦森癌症研究中心疫苗和传染病部门的副教授。

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，“即使是那些从来没有看过流感医生的人，如果他们感到流感症状出现，也可能会被提示预约或者去急诊室，”皮尔冈说。

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.

这是因为流感和COVID-19有许多(尽管不是全部)共同的症状，包括发烧、发冷、咳嗽、喉咙痛、肌肉或身体疼痛、头痛和疲劳。在COVID-19中可能发生的味觉和嗅觉丧失，在流感中不会发生。