Lauren Buck, the new head of Revere Health and Human Services, delivered a timely and important message to all residents at last week’s meeting of the Revere Disabilities Commission at which she was the guest speaker: Get your flu shot now.
Ms. Buck, who previously had capably served as the Executive Director for the Revere Board of Health, acknowledged that all of us are suffering from a case of vaccine fatigue thanks to the plethora of COVID-19 vaccines that have come on the market in the past 22 months.
However, the flu in an average year kills about 50,000 Americans, a rate that plummeted during the past two years when we were isolating and wearing masks. But with pretty much all of the COVID-19 restrictions no longer in effect, it is expected that this will be a significant flu season over the next six months — and could have dire effects for our senior citizen population, who are particularly susceptible to a bad outcome from the flu.
We also would note that contrary to common perception, COVID-19 is far from done with us. COVID-19 still is killing more than 300 Americans every day — that’s a rate of more than 100,000 per year.
Medical professionals are predicting that we may be facing a perfect storm of upper respiratory illnesses this winter from the flu, COVID-19, and RSV (which typically afflicts very young children and is filling our hospital beds at the present time.)
The Revere Board of Health is conducting flu shot clinics at its offices every Tuesday from 3-6:30 at 50 Walnut St. No appointment is necessary — and you also can get the latest COVID-19 booster. (For questions, call 781-485-8486.)
