Flu season coming to WNY

Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As the calendar shifts into fall, the countdown to flu season is getting underway. Experts say now is the best time to get your flu shot.

Norma Nicosia of the Niagara County Health Department says there have been sporadic cases reported. "if people haven't gotten it, now is a good time because it usually takes a couple of weeks to develop some immunity against the flu," says Nicosia. "It is considered extremely safe. If they have any concerns as far as like insurance or paying for it, we do offer flu clinics here. Well, immunization clinics where you can get the flu shot," she adds.

Dr. Stephen Turkovich of Golisano Children's Hospitsl says getting the flu shot now is the best time because it takes two weeks for it to fully take effect. As far as the harshness of the season, he says it's hard to tell. "One of the biggest challenges is we don't know when new variants will pop up, when the when the flu virus will mutate. So the the best thing is to get the shot because even if it's a little bit different than what we're see circulating, you will get some protection from that," says Turkovich. "Also, when you get the flu shot every year, you're sort of building up that protection. So we think it's going to be sort of an average season, but there's been times in the past where we predicted an average season, and a new variant comes along. So it's generally pretty good in terms of keeping you out of the hospital, and especially keeping you out of the ICU and and from other terrible things."

How much can weather play a role? "When the weather's a little bit milder, people are around each other a little bit more, so that certainly could increase the the risk of spread. And we don't get those really cold, cold times where you know it kills different things out in the community. So it may be that it could make it worse, but you know every flu season is really unpredictable in terms of what might happen. We try to get some clues from the southern hemisphere and what they saw, and sometimes that's a really good predictor," explains Turkovich.

He says the peak of flu season is December.