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Anchor lead: You can reduce your chances of both Covid-19 and the flu, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Getting both Sars-CoV2 and the flu, called ‘coinfection,’ sounds like a nightmare, but based on previous experience with respiratory viruses it is possible. Aaron Milstone, an infectious diseases expert at Johns Hopkins, says there are several steps you can take to avoid such an outcome.

Milstone: We really want to encourage everyone to get the influenza vaccine to avoid that case where someone may get coinfected with both influenza and Covid-19. So this is an especially important year to protect people from influenza. The Sars-CoV2 virus is similar to influenza in that we think it primarily is spread through droplets. Interventions we put in place, things like masking, distancing, hand washing, practicing cough etiquette, those are things that will help the primary spread of both viruses.   :30 

Milstone notes that in the southern hemisphere, where they have already had their flu season, these interventions helped keep flu infections very low. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.