Protect Yourself During Flu Season

Written by Ally Paige

As winter approaches and the cooler weather sets in across the province, flu season makes an appearance as well.  

Doctor David Torr, Saskatchewan Health Authority Medical Health Officer and Area Department Lead, Public Health and Preventative Medicine, spoke to West Central Online, to share some insight on the Influenza virus. 

“The influenza virus for some reason really thrives better in the cooler temperatures,” he explained. “So, when winter comes in, it's a much more conducive time for it to spread.  

“The other thing that helps it to spread more in the winter time is of course we're a lot more indoors. And when we're indoors with other folks and doing indoor activities or attending indoor activities, it’s much easier to spread indoors than if it's in the outdoors.” 

Torr also acknowledged that that the flu may present itself in common ways that are similar to that of other respiratory viruses including COVID-19. He noted that the only way to know what you have it to get properly tested.  

“It's very hard to differentiate, and it's always best to get it checked out and then tested as well, as necessary to rule out which is which,” Torr stated.  

Dr. Torr points out that individuals do not have to choose between the influenza vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine. 

“Some people are saying, yeah, I don't need to bother with the flu, I'll just focus on COVID,” he stated. “Others are saying, oh, wow, I know there's people who've had really bad flu and died as well, and unfortunately yes we have had deaths from flu in the past, but COVID is also very serious and we have had as you well know, a lot of ill people as well as death. So, both vaccines are important.” 

As for the drop in influenza cases last year, Dr. Torr credits a few different factors. 

“As we compete as human beings for certain things, I think viruses also have certain competitions and Covid for some reason really took over and didn't give room for the respiratory viruses to take root,” he said. "A lot of these respiratory viruses, of course depend on being spread from one person to another, and one of the interesting things, last year we took a lot of precautions. We started masking, we did a lot of hand hygiene, we did a lot of distancing.” 

I think it's important to remember that the vaccines are one of the tools, it's not the only tool that we use, and so if one has had vaccine doesn't mean they sit back and don't do the hand hygiene or the distancing. We should keep up all those measures in that model that we present a lot what we call the Swiss cheese model so that by having all the tools on hand, using the hand hygiene, using the distancing, avoiding the crowds, and having the vaccine that way, we have a really good strategy against these viruses. 

The majority of flu clinics this year will be by appointment, click here to book.