Now Is the Best Time to Get Your Flu Shot

Doctors often use the phrase “flu before boo” to remind people to get their flu vaccine before Halloween. But this flu season, you might not want to wait until Oct. 31 to get vaccinated. “We might be seeing an early flu wave this year,” says Emily Martin, professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, pointing to national clinical surveillance data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that shows an uptick of flu cases in the U.S. in recent weeks.“It's not unusual to have a little bit of flu show up when college students return to campus and when kids go back to school. However, we've been seeing some flu activity in the last few weeks that seems to be sticking around,” says Martin, who studies the spread of respiratory viruses and vaccine effectiveness. Getting the flu shot now is a good idea, Martin says, as it takes about two weeks for the vaccine to become fully effective. She adds that October is generally an ideal time to get the flu vaccine because it not only offers protection from early waves of the virus, but also gives continued coverage through January and February when flu cases are typically at their...