Infectious Diseases physician discusses COVID and flu prevention

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — October is just around the corner — and along with it comes the beginning of COVID and influenza seasons.

Infectious Diseases Dr. Helmut Albrecht with Prisma Health says locally he hasn’t seen a large uptick in COVID cases as of yet, but the ones he has treated seem to pack a little more of a punch specifically for immuno-compromised patients.

“This one seems to be, in the limited exposure we’ve had so far, cause a little more nagging, bronchitis…it can, in the wrong patients, go into pneumonia,” he says. For most people, he says symptoms of COVID might mimic a common cold, and include a sore throat, fever, cough, and headache.

To help prevent getting sick, doctors recommend regular hand-washing, and getting vaccinated for both COVID and the flu. Whether you get them on the same day, or separately, is up to you and your doctor.

“There’s no problem with getting both vaccines at the same time. There’s no problem with getting them now. New formulations are in, so you can get them now,” says Dr. Albrecht.

A common myth is that a vaccine can give you the actual flu or COVID.

“You can’t get the flu or COVID from the vaccines. There’s no intact virus in it. There’s just an antigen that gets your immune system to build immunity to the virus when you encounter it — but there’s no virus in the vaccine, so it cannot give you even a cold. But it can give you symptoms of your immune system reacting — which is actually an expected and positive effect of the vaccine. It isn’t always pleasant, but it actually shows that the vaccine is working well in you,” says Dr. Albrecht.

Getting vaccinated also helps keep others safe. “Do I have grandparents around? Are there babies around? Do I need to drag this into places where people are not as fortunate as you to have a good immune system?” he asks.

And if you come down with a fever, doctors encourage folks to stay home from work or school if possible, so that you aren’t contagious to others.

“Take this seriously enough and see if you can protect somebody else by behaving correctly and getting the vaccine — so you’ll help others,” he says.