There's a lot of talk about COVID-19 vaccines, but doctors say during this time of year it's still important to remember to get your flu shot, especially this year.|| COVID-19 updates | Maryland's latest numbers | Get tested | Vaccine Info ||Doctors said the season will be a tricky one since the flu and COVID-19 have nearly the same symptoms. They said it's best to protect yourself on both fronts with the vaccines."It's an especially important year to get the flu shot," said Dr. Miriam Alexander, of LifeBridge Health.Alexander said now is the perfect time to do it. Getting the shot in October will protect you for the height of flu season between November and March, though experts said it's hard to predict how bad this flu season will be."Because we basically had no flu for over a year, including in both the northern and southern hemispheres and the flu kind of cycles through between different parts of the globe and there's just not a lot of flu out there so it could be the case we have another mild flu season, but we have to prepare for the worst," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.And that means getting your flu shot. There's some concern in the medical community that last year's lack of flu season means people have less immunity against the flu, which could lead to a worse flu season."Viruses sort of mutate slowly so since there wasn't as much exposure last year perhaps, we as a population are going to have less immunity," Alexander said.Alexander said the uptake on the flu shot is slower than expected for this time of year, but she's hoping things will pick up.Coronavirus is getting a lot of attention, but the flu can also be a dangerous disease."Influenza kills tens of thousands of Americans every year, especially the very old and the very young, especially when you think about flu it has a disproportionate impact on young children -- children younger than five, so it's very important to get people vaccinated and to keep flu under control," Adalja said.Doctors said you should get vaccinated for both COVID-19 and the flu, you can even get them both at the same time.The flu shot has been around for decades, doctors say it's safe and widely available."The more people that get the flu shot the more insurance we're going to have against a flu season that synergizes with the COVID-19 season that we're going to likely have in the fall and winter," Adalja said.If people continue to follow COVID-19 protocols like wearing masks and social distancing this winter, Alexander said that will cut down on the spread of the flu.