The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a statement on who should be getting vaccinations against COVID-19 ahead of flu season.
The guidance was released as part of the government's new Risk Less. Do more. health campaign, which aims to increase awareness of vaccinations in high risk populations.
COVID-19 cases have seen a significant surge this summer as a new class of variants, known as FLiRT, has risen to dominance across the U.S. As of August 10, nearly 1 in 5 COVID tests performed across the country have come out as positive, with roughly 2 percent of all deaths in the U.S. being attributable to COVID-19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.
Unlike many other respiratory viruses, like influenza, which peak only in the winter, we have consistently seen summer spikes in SARS-CoV-2 infections, which experts believe may come down to the evolution cycles of these new variants.
However, during the colder months, we see a double whammy of COVID along with other seasonal colds and flus.
"Respiratory illness from flu, COVID-19, and RSV viruses usually surge during colder weather and can cause severe disease, hospitalization, and even death," HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Jeffery A Nesbit, said in a statement.
"The goal of the Risk Less. Do More. campaign is to increase confidence in vaccines that play an important role in preventing severe illness from these viruses and to provide the information that the American people need to make the decision to get vaccinated this fall and winter."
According to the HHS, respiratory infections result in thousands of hospitalizations every year. However, vaccinations can train your immune system to recognise these viruses without actually having to get sick.
"As fall approaches and people spend more time indoors, I encourage everyone to protect themselves and their loved ones by getting vaccinated," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
"The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to providing accessible and actionable health information for all U.S. residents, across age, geography, and race/ethnicity. We will continue working every day to ensure the tools are available, and I hope everyone takes this opportunity to stay healthy."
While the CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 5 receives one dose of the updated COVID-19 vaccine, the HHS highlights specific groups who are most vulnerable to infection (and therefore who may benefit most from vaccination):
- Those aged 65 and above
- Those who are pregnant
- Those with certain medical conditions like obesity, asthma, diabetes and heart disease
- Those with a weakened immune system
While the new FLiRT variants have evolved away from the virus variant that was used to design the latest round of vaccinations, data suggests that they still confer some level of immunity, especially against more severe symptoms.
"Even though the FLiRT subvariants are now quite genetically distant from the XBB subvariants—the current vaccine is based on XBB.1.5—the vaccine will still give some cross-immunity against them," Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist and professor of biostatistics at the University of South Australia, previously told Newsweek.
"[However,] there will be a new vaccine available around September, based on either JN.1 or one of the FLiRT subvariants, that will give much better protection."
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