CDC encourages public to get vaccinated to protect against flu, COVID-19

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., today encouraged all eligible Americans to get vaccinated against the flu and COVID-19, noting that hospitals continue to experience the highest flu admissions in a decade this early in the season. With over 78,000 hospitalizations and 14 pediatric deaths so far this flu season, she said vaccination can be lifesaving for people at higher risk for serious illness such as young children, older adults and people with underlying medical conditions. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are also on the rise since Thanksgiving, which she called “worrisome as we move into the winter months when more people are assembling indoors.”

Joining Walensky for the briefing, during National Influenza Vaccination Week, Sandra Fryhofer, M.D., chair of the American Medical Association, said, “Over the last few years COVID protective measures also prevented spread of flu and other respiratory infections, but we're really no longer in that bubble. That's why it's so important to get vaccinated for both flu and COVID, and you can get both vaccines at the same time.”