According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu activity around the nation is increasing. Vaccination can help prevent serious illness, especially in high-risk groups, like pregnant women, but the CDC says that's the group showing lower vaccination rates.
"Pregnant women are a group that should especially get a flu shot," says Dr. Thomas Howell Jr., an OB-GYN at Mayo Clinic Health System. We know that if you're pregnant, your risk of getting sicker from influenza, COVID or any pulmonary respiratory disease, for various physiologic reasons, is much higher."
Dr. Howell says flu vaccines are safe for the developing baby and mother.
"It's not a virus that the baby can get infected by. It doesn't give you the flu, and it doesn't make you sick (even though) everybody says, 'Well, I still got the shot, and I still got the flu.' The point of those immunizations is to keep you from getting sicker, especially very gravely ill. And we know that if you're pregnant, your risk is much higher."
The CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get a flu shot every year to help protect themselves and others against the spread of the virus. It's not too late to get vaccinated. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective.
Other respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19, continue to spread, along with the flu. There are vaccines for influenza and COVID-19, and there is hope for a vaccine for RSV by the end of 2023.
