Doctors say California’s long summer COVID surge has finally ended, a welcome window that offers an important opportunity to prepare for another expected resurgence of transmission this fall and winter .
The key to thwarting that threat is the availability of updated vaccines, designed to boost protection against recently dominant circulating coronavirus strains — the same approach used to develop the annual flu shot.
That’s why doctors are urging everyone 6 months and older to get an updated COVID vaccine, ideally before Halloween. And unlike last year, the new shots have arrived on time and in abundance.
“The most effective thing (people) can do to protect themselves this fall and winter is to get vaccinated,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said recently. briefing“We have an updated COVID vaccine, an updated flu vaccine, an RSV vaccine – all of these can help keep us, our families, our communities safe.”
The Covid surge this summer was particularly enduring. According to the CDC, viral levels in California’s wastewater were calculated as “high” or “very high” for 15 consecutive weeks from early June to the first half of September. This is as long as the 2022 midyear wave and twice as long as last year.
COVID levels in wastewater in California finally returned to “moderate” levels for the week ending Sept. 21, the latest for which data is available.
In Los Angeles County, coronavirus levels in wastewater have fallen for five consecutive weeks. For the 10-day period ending Sept. 14, the most recent available, coronavirus levels were at 45% of last winter’s peak. For the 10-day period ending September 7, the measure was 56%.
While the heat wave may have provided some protection to many people recently infected — at least for a few weeks or months — doctors say it’s still important to get vaccinated. Natural immunity from past infection will wane, and the shots could help combat future outbreaks and ease the worst COVID symptoms for people who get sick.
“These are vaccines that can allow us to reduce the risk of serious diseases and do more of the things we enjoy. We want to spend those Thanksgiving holidays, those Christmas holidays together as a family,” Cohen said at a briefing hosted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
However, a major challenge is Despite widespread acceptance Since COVID-19 vaccines first became available, interest in annual update shots has waned. Most Americans got their primary COVID vaccination in 2021, but only a small number opted to get an updated shot within the past year.
More than 95% of adults hospitalized due to COVID-19 last year did not receive an updated vaccine, according to Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
COVID-19 has become less deadly since the beginning of the pandemic, due to vaccination, the development of new drugs, and the build-up of immunity from prior infections. Still, the disease poses a greater threat to public health than the flu.
Since October 1, 2023, there have been at least 56,000 COVID-19 deaths nationally, the CDC said. There were at least 17,000 flu deaths over the same time period, according to the latest data from the agency guess,
“COVID is still causing more hospitalizations and deaths than the flu,” Cohen said. “So if you’re someone who regularly gets the flu vaccine, you might want to add COVID to that.”
There also remains a risk of developing long COVID — a series of sometimes debilitating symptoms that can last for months, if not years. According to a report published in the journal naturopathy In August, long Covid has affected 400 million people globally, and is estimated to have an annual economic impact of about $1 trillion, essentially about 1% of the worldwide economy.
“Long-term COVID can have a devastating impact on individual lives and, because of its complexity and pervasiveness, it also has a major impact on health systems and economies,” the report said. “Tackling the challenge of long-lasting Covid requires an ambitious and coordinated – but so far absent – global research and policy response strategy.”
Cohen said this fall and winter are expected to be similar to last year in terms of the spread of COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
“If last season is any prediction of this season, it means there will be 800,000 hospitalizations for flu, COVID and RSV,” Cohen said. “We know that these vaccines can halve the risk of hospitalization.”
Flu vaccines alone are estimated to have helped prevent at least 7.5 million cases of flu infections last year, he said.
rsv vaccine Recommended for all people age 75 and older, as well as those ages 60 to 74 who are at increased risk of developing severe symptoms. Unlike the COVID and flu vaccines, the RSV vaccine is not administered annually, so people who received one vaccine last year do not need to get another.
Daskalakis said 160,000 older adults are hospitalized annually because of RSV and the disease is responsible for 6,000 to 10,000 deaths each year.
“If you’re over 75 — slam dunk, you should get the RSV shot, too,” he said.
An RSV vaccine is also available to expectant mothers to provide protection to their fetuses in the 32 to 36 weeks of pregnancy. an antibody to the virus – which the CDC says is the main cause baby hospitalized In the US – also available for infants and some young children.
Doctors say the elderly and immunocompromised people are at the highest risk of severe disease and death, and getting an updated vaccine could be a crucial difference in avoiding hospitalization this winter.
People can choose to get each COVID, flu and RSV vaccine by seeing the same doctor.
“There is no better time than the present to get those vaccines,” Daskalakis said. “They work, but they don’t work if they’re on the shelf. … (If you’re) someone who says, ‘Should I get my vaccine now?’ now is the time.”
Covid and flu vaccinations are also important for pregnant women, who are at higher risk of complications from both diseases, especially in their third trimester.
“If you vaccinate a pregnant person, their babies will also benefit from that protection. This is especially important because we do not have any vaccine for infants in the first six months of life,” said Dr. Flor M. MunozAssociate professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Infants in the first six months of life have the highest rates of COVID-related hospitalization — compared with seniors ages 65 to 74, according to one. report Published Thursday by the CDC. The report said nearly 1,000 infants were hospitalized with COVID for the 19-month period ending in April, with 22% of them admitted to the intensive care unit, and Nine died during hospitalization.
Of the babies whose mothers’ Covid vaccination status was available, all those who died in hospital were born to mothers who had no record of vaccination during pregnancy, the report said.
Flu is also a danger. During the 2023–24 season, 200 children nationally died from the flu – a record numbers in non-pandemic seasons, the CDC said. Of those children, about 80% were not vaccinated despite being eligible for a flu shot.
Doctors say taking steps like washing your hands and wearing a mask in public places indoors can reduce the risk of infection from diseases like COVID, RSV or flu.
American families are now again eligible to receive four free at-home COVID tests sent via mail. These are being provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services and you can register here http://covidtests.gov, Shipping of the tests began Monday.
Dr. Reed Tucson, former health commissioner of the District of Columbia and president of the Black Coalition Against COVID, said at an event that there is a lot of misinformation that masking is not helpful, which is nonsense. news conference,
“Masks work in terms of preventing the spread of disease from one person to another,” Tucson said. “So whether you want to wear them or not, please wear them or not, based on the evidence that they are effective. But the end of the day is, how many times do you have to do this? Use common sense, guided by a sense of morality and ethics.
Another big no-no is not to attend work or events when you are sick. Tuckson said some people may still think he will be seen as a hero for working out despite being “sick as a dog”, thinking it will show “how tough I am”.
But there’s a less positive way of looking at it, Tucson said: “‘Let me tell you how rude I am and how willing I am to infect other people, just to show you what a big egoist I am. ‘ “Which side of that equation do you want to be on?”
Health misinformation has been a major challenge. To the dismay of mainstream public health experts, Florida’s controversial health department – in opposition to federal guidance – advised Against getting mRNA Covid vaccines. Federal health officials have consistently said vaccination is safe, effective and reduces the risk of severe disease and death.
Charles R. Willowbrook The former president of Drew University of Medicine and Science in Tucson called Florida’s message misinformed.
“We have to fight twice as hard with all this stuff coming out of Florida…it means wasted resources, wasted time,” Tucson said. “And I am, quite frankly, outraged that we should have another element that makes the fight for human life that much more difficult.”
There have been public health successes during the pandemic. At the start of the COVID vaccination campaign, a national survey found that vaccination rates for Black and Latino residents lagged behind those for white residents. At the end of April 2021, 59% of white residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to 47% of Latino and 46% of Black residents.
By the end of November 2021, however, vaccination rates leveled off for those three groups — 78% of Black, 81% of Latino and 79% of white adults received at least one vaccine dose, according to a report published in CDC.
It was a remarkable success, Tucson said.
“After a concerted, vigorous, and beneficial action by Black America and others of goodwill like our colleagues at CDC, for the first time in history, we actually closed the inequality gap,” Tucson said.
The progress shows how it is possible to “demonstrate extraordinary progress despite obstacles and challenges,” Tucson said. “We have to work really hard to combat this widespread, targeted and malicious misinformation that is causing so much illness, disease, and then death in our community.”
