A dual outbreak of the flu and COVID-19 this fall would put a “serious strain” on the capacity of the state’s health care system, Sen. Julian Cyr said Thursday.
During a conference call with the Cape Cod Reopening Task Force, Cyr and health care professionals from the region urged people to get vaccinated against the flu.
Cyr, a Truro Democrat, said precautions aimed at curbing COVID-19 transmission, like wearing masks, will also help prevent flu spread.
Separately, Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito plan to visit a CVS in Boston’s Roslindale neighborhood at 11 a.m. Thursday to highlight flu vaccination efforts.
This year’s flu shot covers the four main strains seen last year, Cape Cod Healthcare’s Dr. Kevin Mulroy said on the call.
Mulroy said that the vaccine appears to be effective, but even if it does not provide “100 percent coverage” it will still blunt the flu season’s impact.
His concern, he said, is that health care might be overwhelmed on the outpatient side, where a mix of COVID-19 and flu patients with similar symptoms might make spread of the illnesses worse.
“We do have this fairly good vaccine, and we really want to push this vaccine as much as possible,” Mulroy said. “Let’s do everything that we can do to knock this down. Hopefully this will be a fairly mild season, and we’ll just move on with this until we can get vaccinated for COVID-19.”
Flu vaccines will be required for students across Massachusetts this year.
The Massachusetts Medical Society on Thursday encouraged people of all ages to schedule a flu vaccine, “ideally by the end of October” and said thousands of Massachusetts patients are hospitalized annually because of the flu.
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