With flu season approaching, the question of when to get vaccinated depends largely on where you live. Recent data show an uptick in flu activity in the Pacific Northwest, while the CDC's national surveillance still places most of the country at minimal activity levels.
Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, advises people in the West or those planning to travel there to consider getting vaccinated now. For everyone else, he suggests scheduling shots within the next two to three weeks, mainly because appointment slots will become harder to find as flu activity picks up in other regions.
Osterholm stressed that the current pattern is not unusual or alarming. "What I see now is a flu year starting out as a pretty normal flu year," he said. The timing guidance is less about immediate risk and more about ensuring people are protected before the virus spreads widely in their area.