Health officials urge people to get flu shots every year, but this winter the shots will be especially important to reduce the strain on hospitals potentially dealing with a second wave of coronavirus cases.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said everyone needs to be vaccinated against the flu to free up resources for fighting the coronavirus. He said only about 47 percent of Americans get flu shots every year, but hoped that number would rise as people understand it’s a major way they can combat the virus.
Not all flu cases are reported, but the CDC estimates there were up to 56 million cases and 62,000 deaths from the flu from October 2019 through the beginning of April 2020.
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