Flu shots are here. When's the ideal time to get one, and should you get it with the Covid vaccine?

Flu and Covid shots are now available at pharmacies. Both have new formulas this year, and they can be administered at the same time.

Flu shot season is upon us.

Pharmacies began giving out the vaccines — which are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older — last month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting a flu shot either this month or next, since flu activity typically picks up in the fall, with cases reaching their peak sometime from December to February. 

It takes around two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective. 

“You really want to think about getting your appointment or making your plan to get vaccinated sometime around the last half of September through the end of October,” said Dr. Judith O’Donnell, chief of infectious diseases at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia.

This year’s flu shots are trivalent, meaning they protect against three flu viruses: two versions of influenza A and one type of influenza B. For more than a decade, flu shots in the U.S. also protected against a fourth strain of influenza B, but that strain hasn’t circulated since March 2020, so the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee elected this year to exclude it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flu-shot-when-covid-vaccine-rcna169364

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