An update on fall respiratory viruses : NPR

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Fall is on the horizon, and that unfortunately means we are facing yet another season of coughs, fevers, chills and other miserable symptoms caused by respiratory viruses. Federal health officials are starting to urge people to think about what they can do to protect themselves and their loved ones against COVID and the flu and RSV. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein is with us. Hey, Rob.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.

KELLY: I’m trying to wrap my mind around this ’cause it’s still pretty hot in a lot of places. A lot of kids…

STEIN: Yeah.

KELLY: …Including mine – are not even back in school yet.

STEIN: Yeah.

KELLY: But we have to start thinking about fall and winter already.

STEIN: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. And, you know, the reason is this summer’s COVID wave started a lot earlier and turned out to be a lot worse than people had expected. In fact, the virus is still spreading like crazy in many parts of the country, and the RSV and flu seasons just aren’t that far away. So officials want to start laying the groundwork for getting as many people protected as possible. Here’s Dr. Mandy Cohen. She runs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At a briefing today, she said the country could be facing a winter respiratory virus season as bad as last year’s.

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MANDY COHEN: The best plan going into this winter is for everyone to remain vigilant, to use the tools we have against the illnesses responsible for the majority of fall and winter deaths and hospitalizations.

KELLY: Rob, tell us about the tools. What can people do?

STEIN: Well, the first thing they can do is get one of the updated COVID vaccines. All three vaccines have been reformulated to try to better match the strains that are currently circulating. In fact, just yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to new versions of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The Novavax vaccine is expected to get the FDA’s stab of approval soon. They’re not exact matches for what’s dominant right now and may be dominant this winter, but the hope is they’re at least a close enough match that they’ll provide better protection. Here’s Dr. Cohen again.

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COHEN: Our top recommendation for protecting yourself and others is to get an updated vaccine for COVID.

KELLY: Get an updated vaccine – when, Rob? When should we run out and do this?

STEIN: Yeah, so they could start to become available as soon as this weekend. And the CDC is recommending that everyone age 6 months and older get one of the new shots, you know, basically as soon as they can. You know, that said, people, you know, who just got COVID over the summer will want to wait at least two months since their last infection before getting one of the new shots to get the most bang for the buck. And some people may want to hold off to maybe September, October to get the best protection for when the next winter surge peaks.

And I should mention that some experts think that, you know, maybe not everybody should necessarily get another shot every fall. Some think most otherwise younger, healthy people may not necessarily need one because of all the immunity they have at this point because of the previous infections and vaccinations they’ve gotten. But officially, the recommendation is for everyone age 6 months and older. And the other thing is the government will start sending up to four free COVID tests again in September to anyone who wants them.

KELLY: That’s COVID. What about the others? What about flu and RSV?

STEIN: Yeah, yeah. The flu shots will start to become available pretty soon, too. And so far, it looks like they’ll be a pretty good match for the strains of the virus that are most dominant. Health officials are urging everyone 6 months and older to get a flu shot, too, and they can get it at the same time they get a COVID shot. The other thing is health officials say pregnant people and everyone aged 75 and older should get one of the new RSV vaccines too if they didn’t get one last year, and anyone aged 60 to 74 at high risk from RSV should think about getting that vaccine as well.

KELLY: NPR health correspondent, Rob Stein. Thank you, Rob.

STEIN: You bet.

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