Well being officers are planning one other fall marketing campaign designed to encourage everybody six months and older to get up to date COVID and flu vaccines, however are scaling again the advice for RSV vaccines.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Fall is on the horizon, and that sadly means we face one more season of coughs, fevers, chills and different depressing signs attributable to respiratory viruses. Federal well being officers are beginning to urge folks to consider what they’ll do to guard themselves and their family members towards COVID and the flu and RSV. NPR well being correspondent Rob Stein is with us. Hey, Rob.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.
KELLY: I am making an attempt to wrap my thoughts round this ‘trigger it is nonetheless fairly sizzling in a number of locations. Plenty of children…
STEIN: Yeah.
KELLY: …Together with mine – are usually not even again at school but.
STEIN: Yeah.
KELLY: However we have now to start out fascinated by fall and winter already.
STEIN: Yeah, yeah, that is proper. And, you realize, the reason being this summer time’s COVID wave began so much earlier and turned out to be so much worse than folks had anticipated. Actually, the virus continues to be spreading like loopy in lots of components of the nation, and the RSV and flu seasons simply aren’t that distant. So officers wish to begin laying the groundwork for getting as many individuals protected as attainable. This is Dr. Mandy Cohen. She runs the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. At a briefing immediately, she mentioned the nation could possibly be dealing with a winter respiratory virus season as unhealthy as final yr’s.
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MANDY COHEN: The very best plan going into this winter is for everybody to stay vigilant, to make use of the instruments we have now towards the sicknesses accountable for almost all of fall and winter deaths and hospitalizations.
KELLY: Rob, inform us in regards to the instruments. What can folks do?
STEIN: Nicely, the very first thing they’ll do is get one of many up to date COVID vaccines. All three vaccines have been reformulated to attempt to higher match the strains which can be at present circulating. Actually, simply yesterday, the Meals and Drug Administration gave the inexperienced mild to new variations of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The Novavax vaccine is predicted to get the FDA’s stab of approval quickly. They don’t seem to be actual matches for what’s dominant proper now and could also be dominant this winter, however the hope is that they’re at the very least an in depth sufficient match that they’re going to present higher safety. This is Dr. Cohen once more.
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COHEN: Our high advice for shielding your self and others is to get an up to date vaccine for COVID.
KELLY: Get an up to date vaccine – when, Rob? When ought to we run out and do that?
STEIN: Yeah, so they may begin to develop into obtainable as quickly as this weekend. And the CDC is recommending that everybody age 6 months and older get one of many new pictures, you realize, mainly as quickly as they’ll. , that mentioned, folks, you realize, who simply bought COVID over the summer time will wish to wait at the very least two months since their final an infection earlier than getting one of many new pictures to get essentially the most bang for the buck. And a few folks might wish to maintain off to perhaps September, October to get the very best safety for when the subsequent winter surge peaks.
And I ought to point out that some specialists assume that, you realize, perhaps not all people ought to essentially get one other shot each fall. Some assume most in any other case youthful, wholesome folks might not essentially want one due to all of the immunity they’ve at this level due to the earlier infections and vaccinations they’ve gotten. However formally, the advice is for everybody age 6 months and older. And the opposite factor is the federal government will begin sending as much as 4 free COVID checks once more in September to anybody who needs them.
KELLY: That is COVID. What in regards to the others? What about flu and RSV?
STEIN: Yeah, yeah. The flu pictures will begin to develop into obtainable fairly quickly, too. And to this point, it appears like they will be a fairly good match for the strains of the virus which can be most dominant. Well being officers are urging everybody 6 months and older to get a flu shot, too, and so they can get it on the similar time they get a COVID shot. The opposite factor is well being officers say pregnant folks and everybody aged 75 and older ought to get one of many new RSV vaccines too in the event that they did not get one final yr, and anybody aged 60 to 74 at excessive danger from RSV ought to take into consideration getting that vaccine as nicely.
KELLY: NPR well being correspondent, Rob Stein. Thanks, Rob.
STEIN: You guess.
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