It’s not too late to get it: what to know about getting the flu vaccine this year

Influenza arrived early this year and though the CDC considers activity to be low, infections are expected to rise in the coming weeks

Influenza arrived early this year, popping up on the west coast “about two and a half months earlier than normal”, says Dr Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota – a timeline not seen since the 2010 season.

And while the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) still considers flu activity overall to be low, with 16,000 recorded flu-related hospitalizations so far, it expects infections to keep rising in the coming weeks as the virus spreads through the midwest and east coast.