Back to School.....Let it be Your Trigger for Vaccinations

It’s the first day of public school here in Seattle. The air is cool and crisp, I’ve flipped through the September Vogue dreaming of new clothes. It’s not as thick as it was when I was going back to school and I’m not memorizing class schedules anymore but I still need some new things each fall, vaccines. Last year was really rough with a RSV, flu and COVID tripledemic. Please consider this schedule:

Mid September - COVID booster

Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have each developed a COVID vaccine update to protect against the newer omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, and regulators at the FDA have vetted the changes. On September 12, the CDC will vote on wether or not to recommend their use. If the CDC approves these doses, they could be available by mid to late September. The updated booster is intended for high risk groups as these are the people who end up hospitalized most frequently. Briefly, folks who are elderly, immunocompromised and pregnant.

October - Flu vaccine

Each year, the flu poses a deadly threat - preliminary federal data suggest the virus resulted in 650,000 hospitalizations and 58,000 deaths last year. The CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older should get the flu vaccine every season. Just do it.

RSV

Though RSV was discovered in the 1950s, vaccines to prevent this life-threatening illness had not been created and approved until this year. To prevent the worst outcomes, the FDA and CDC have approved RSV vaccines for people >60 yoa, infants and toddlers and pregnant women.

A single dose of Abrysvo is available between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy and protects both the parent and fetus. Clinical trial data showed it reduced the risk of severe complications for a newborn by more than 80 percent within three months of birth.

Because this vaccine is new, researchers and doctors are still figuring out how much durable protection it can offer to a person’s immune system. But early evidence suggests this vaccine may last beyond a single RSV season, which would be a relief for patients as well as the experts who try to keep usI healthy.

If you have ? let me know :)