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Gone by
Thanksgiving:
Will we
have
enough
flu
vaccine
in 2020?
medicaleconomics.com
For
primary
care
physicians,
the
pandemic
has
caused
many
patients
to delay
or
cancel
routine
care.
But when
it comes
to the
annual
flu
shot,
one
infectious
disease
physician
is
predicting
that
practices
will see
a rush
to get
inoculated.
“My
guesstimate
is that
we’re
going to
run out
of the
influenza
vaccine
by
Thanksgiving,”
says
MarkAlain
Dery,
DO, an
infectious
disease
physician
and
epidemiologist
with
Access
Health
Louisiana,
where he
serves
as the
medical
director
of
infectious
diseases
and
chief
innovation
officer.
“I think
that
people
are
going to
flock
toward
the
vaccine,
because
it's
just
going to
be
something
that
they can
do. Most
people
don't
have the
ability
to do
something
about
coronavirus,
so I
think
that
getting
vaccinated
for the
flu is
people
trying
to take
their
health
into
their
own
hands.”
Dery
says
that one
of his
biggest
fears is
seeing
two
viral
epidemics—influenza
and
corona—collide
with one
another,
making
the
current
health
care
crisis
worse.
If
everyone
feels
the need
to get
vaccinated
for the
flu, it
can
prevent
further
stressing
the
system.
In
the
southern
hemisphere,
where
the
seasons
are
opposite
of those
in North
America,
there
have
been low
numbers
in terms
of
influenza.
Dery
credits
this to
the
social
distancing
and face
masking
due to
COVID,
plus the
limited
amounts
of
global
travel
happening.
“I'm
not
saying
that we
will
have a
lighter
influenza
year,
but the
evidence
in the
southern
hemisphere
is
certainly
suggestive
that we
may have
a
lighter
year,
especially
if
everybody
is face
masking.
I
strongly
suspect
that
that
that
fear of
convergence
of
influenza
and
COVID-19
will
hopefully
be
something
that
isn't
realized.”
If
the
demand
from
patients
for the
flu
vaccine
doesn’t
materialize,
Dery
says
it’s
important
for
physicians
to take
action.
“I
would
say that
it's
incumbent
upon the
physician
and
staff to
really
take the
time and
invest
the
energy
to
making
sure
they
call
their
patients
to come
in and
get
vaccinated,”
he says.
Because
most
clinics
ordered
their
flu
vaccines
months
ago,
there
may not
be
enough
to meet
demand,
so
prioritization
may be
necessary.
Start
with the
highest
risk
patients—elderly,
immunocompromised,
obese,
etc.—and
work
from
there.
“Another
really
important
point
for
physicians
is that
they
should
have
standing
orders
for
their
nurses,
or
medical
assistants
to be
able to
go ahead
and just
give the
influenza
vaccine
for
everybody
who
comes
into the
office,”
says
Dery.
“So this
way,
even
before I
see the
patient,
my MA
has
already
vaccinated
my
patients.
It's
been
ordered
for me
and I
just go
and sign
it when
I sign
off on
the
patient's
chart.”
If
patient
demand
outstrips
a
practice’s
supply
of
influenza
vaccine,
he says
the best
option
is to
send
them to
a large
commercial
pharmacy
that
provides
vaccinations.
Dery
says the
good
news
heading
into flu
season
is that
most
practices
have an
influenza
rapid
test,
allowing
them to
quickly
determine
whether
a
patient
has the
flu or
if it’s
something
else,
like
COVID. A
rapid
test for
COVID
may also
be
available
soon,
further
helping
doctors’
diagnosis
efforts.
“I don’t
see
patients
being
unsure
about
what
they
have
being
stressful
on
physicians,
except
for the
fact
that you
never
want to
see your
patients
not
feeling
well,”
says
Dery.
“They
should
be able
to test
for them
pretty
easily.”
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