United States: This fall, adolescents and all adults aged six months and above should get a COVID-19 booster and a flu vaccine, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended on Thursday.
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Based on the vote by the CDC’s advisory panel, it appears that for the near future, the core of the branch of the federal health agencies’ public health advice regarding the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic would not be dissimilar to recommendations on other respiratory diseases, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) also ratified new, seasonal flu shots for those that are six months and older to be directed at three strains of influenza A that circulated in the previous winter, as USA Today reported.
According to Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDC director, who has boosted the recommendations, “Our top recommendation for protecting yourself and your loved ones from respiratory illness is to get vaccinated” and “Make a plan now for you and your family to get both updated flu and COVID vaccines this fall, ahead of the respiratory virus season.”
Lesser intake of new COVID vaccines
After more than four years into the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer people are getting new vaccines. Only a fifth of American adults got the latest COVID-19 shot until May, a CDC finding revealed.
Based on the testimonies given by the panelists, they were worried that the CDC’s Bridge Access Program that offered free COVID-19 vaccines to the uninsured or underinsured persons would close in August before the launch of the updated COVID-19 shot.
Rising cases related to COVID-19 subvariants in the US
Even though the daily new cases figures are nowhere near that witnessed in 2020 or 2021. Flu and Covid-19 should be considered, the agency said.
Thus, according to data from the CDC, for COVID-19 in the same year, 916,300 people were hospitalized, and 75,500 of them died, as USA Today reported.
In 2023, with flu only, approximately 45,000 people died from the flu complications.
The CDC has reported that people who received the last COVID-19 vaccine experienced boosted efficacy in avoiding emergency room and hospital visits compared to those who received no vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccination also minimizes the probability of getting long COVID, which may develop after a severe illness.
These new vaccines provide close to person immunity as the effectiveness of a prior shot or encounter lessens with time. The last vaccine was but for a specific strain and needed a new vaccine that takes more potent dominant strains into consideration.
At the time of this writing, during the February 2023 meeting of ACIP, adults 65 years of age and older were advised to have a booster of the fall 2023 cohorts of the vaccines.