As the promotional push to get people vaccinated with one of the updated, bivalent Covid vaccines heats up, federal health authorities are urging Americans to consider getting their Covid shot and their flu shot at the same time. And with concern about a fall wave of Covid paramount in this effort, the messaging is stressing the importance of doing this sooner rather than later.

Earlier this week, Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, put it bluntly: “Get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you are eligible.” For many people over the age of 12, that would be right now.

There’s just one problem with the advice. It’s still early to get a flu shot.

The protection generated by influenza vaccines erodes pretty quickly over the course of a flu season. A vaccine dose given in early September may offer limited protection if the flu season doesn’t peak until February or even March, as it did during the unusually late 2021-2022 season.

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