Dr. Dave Hnida: Take Action Now To Avoid Twindemic

(CBS4) - With the coronavirus pandemic is still lingering, doctors say it's more important than ever to get your flu shot this year, and that includes CBS4 Medical Editor Dr. Dave Hnida. He talked with CBSN Denver about the possible convergence of COVID-19 and influenza.

"The million dollar question is going to be, 'When does flu season arrive here in Colorado?'" Dr. Dave explained. "Since we don't know the answer to that, we are recommending flu shots a bit earlier this year. Typically we usually say October-ish is a good time. Now we're saying September is a really good time."

"Obviously the big concern is if you wind up having flu coming into the community along with COVID, the risk becomes just an overload on the healthcare system, more hospitalizations than we really have the capacity to deal with."

Dr. Dave also addressed myths and misconceptions about the flu vaccines. You do need to get one every year.

"It is also important to know the flu shot will not give you the flu. It will not make you sick," Dr. Dave said. "I know a lot of people avoid the flu vaccine. In fact, less than 50 percent of adults get vaccinated against the flu. If you are ever going to get vaccinated against the flu, this is the year to do."

"The other thing to keep in mind is that it's vitally important you think about getting your child vaccinated, six months and older, is the approved age."

Dr. Dave said don't let the argument that it's not 100 percent effective be a reason not to get the shot. "No vaccine is perfect but if you do get a flu vaccine it will provide some level of protection, even if doesn't completely prevent (it). You will have a lesser degree of illness."

CBSN Denver also asked Dr. Dave if it's possible to get coronavirus twice. It comes after reports of a person being reinfected in Hong Kong.

Dr. Dave explained that person did have gene type testing done which showed it was two different infections. There is also a report out of Nevada about seperate infections.

"You're thinking to yourself, 'Oh my gosh, am I ever going to be protected or immune from coronavirus?' I think the important to remember here is the coronavirus that we're talking about, the novel COVID-19, so to speak, is in fact a member of the coronavirus family which is the same family that most common colds come from."

"We dod no have a vaccine that works against preventing all colds and we know that people don't develop immunity against all coronaviruses. Don't panic, I think you have you to take a big picture look at this. We're talking about a few cases. We have millions and millions of people get coronavirus and have not been reinfected."

"So this is a very, very small number of folks. We don't know what to totally make of it at this point."

Dr. Dave also explained antibody tests for COVID-19 are still developing despite their prevalence. that's because researchers are are learning more about how the body fights COVID-19 and the markers that remain behind.

We know new developments in the pandemic mean you have new questions. Dr. Dave joins us every Monday morning at 11 to answer those questions on CBSN Denver.