Beginning today, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will send text and email reminders to approximately 132,579 parents and guardians of children aged 6 months through 5 years old whose records in the Colorado Immunization Information System show they may be due for their annual flu vaccine.

State health officials are working to increase flu vaccine uptake statewide since officials believe that this flu season could be more severe than we have seen in years.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show seasonal flu activity is elevated across the country.

According to the CDPHE, Colorado’s hospitalization rates are now ahead of the 2017-2018 flu season (the most severe on record). In some southeastern states, flu hospitalization rates are already at levels seen during the fall 2009 H1N1 pandemic.

Read more at KRDO.

The White House on Tuesday encouraged Americans to talk about COVID-19 vaccination at the Thanksgiving table, insisting that widespread vaccination could prevent almost every coronavirus death in the country. 

At a press briefing, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha rolled out the Biden administration’s plan for a “six-week sprint” to convince Americans to take the updated COVID-19 vaccine shots before the end of the year. The campaign includes hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding for community health centers to increase the pace of vaccinations, but Jha said every American needs to “step up” and be involved in conversations on vaccination as well.

“Bottom line is that we’re doing everything we can in the next six weeks to help families get their updated COVID shots by the end of the year, because it’s the best protection for this winter,” Jha said, adding that the latest iteration of the COVID-19 vaccine is a “once a year shot,” similar to the flu shot. 

Read more at Fox News.

Don’t be surprised if you come in contact with a few uninvited guests around the Thanksgiving table this year.

What’s happening: The threat of a “tripledemic” collision of flu, COVID and RSV cases has arrived just in time for the holidays — and the chances of getting sick this season are high.

• Meanwhile, local health workers on the front lines are seeing an unprecedented number of patients as staff levels remain squeezed.

What they’re saying: “All of our ERs are basically seeing volumes 30, 40 to sometimes even 50% above even the highest numbers that we’ve seen in previous seasons,” Kevin Carney, associate chief medical officer with Children’s Hospital Colorado, which has four Front Range facilities, told CPR.

Read more at Axios.

When women started reporting longer periods and heavier-than-normal bleeding after getting Covid vaccines last year, there was little data to back it up.

Although they made up around half the participants in Covid vaccine trials, women were not asked about any menstrual changes as part of that process. Since then, several studies have revealed that Covid vaccines can indeed induce short-term changes in menstrual cycles.

So a growing chorus of researchers is calling for further study of vaccines’ effects on menstruation. Collecting this type of data during the Covid vaccine trials, they say, could have prevented distress among those who experienced abnormal changes to their cycles and assuaged fears about the shots at a time when misinformation abounded.

Read more at NBC.

According to the CDC, over 150 Americans die every day due to overdosing on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. The federal government, as well as many state and local governments, have declared the ongoing injuries and fatalities as a result of fentanyl addiction to be public health emergencies. But one new potential solution for the opioid crisis may be a simple one: a vaccine.

Researchers at the University of Houston have developed a vaccine that causes the body to produce antibodies against fentanyl, preventing the drug from entering the brain and stopping any euphoric effects. Additionally, it didn’t show any cross-reactions against other less potent opioids, such as morphine, leaving that option open for pain relief treatment. The vaccine was tested on mice, and the researchers are now engaged in developing clinical grade versions for potential human trials.

Read more at Forbes.

Flu, RSV, and COVID-19 infections all are skyrocketing just as we’re gearing up for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

“We are officially in respiratory viral season. That includes everything you can think of from the common cold to more severe illnesses, and it has begun with a vengeance,” said  Dr. Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control for UCHealth and one of the top infectious disease experts in Colorado.

“Sometimes we have a slow start to the respiratory season. Not this year,” Barron said. “We went from nothing to hundreds of cases in a very short time frame.”

Read more at Colorado Times Recorder.

Weekly flu cases, hospitalizations and deaths have nearly doubled for the second week in a row, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far this season, there have been at least 2.8 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations and 1,300 deaths from influenza.

By comparison, the prior week’s estimates had illnesses at 1.6 million, hospitalizations at 13,000 and deaths at 730.

Additionally, the cumulative hospitalization rate currently sits at 5 per 100,000, which is the highest at this point in the season since the 2010-11 season, as far back as statistics are available.

Read more at ABC.

An experimental therapeutic cancer vaccine induced two distinct and desirable immune system responses that led to significant tumor regression in mice. This is according to a new research study published in the journal Cell, reported by investigators from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

According to the research findings, intravenous (IV) administration of the vaccine boosted the number of cytotoxic T cells capable of infiltrating and attacking tumor cells and engaged the innate immune system by inducing type I interferon. The innate immune response modified the tumor microenvironment, counteracting suppressive forces that otherwise would tamp down T-cell action. Modification of the tumor microenvironment was not found in mice that received the vaccine via subcutaneous administration (i.e. a needle injection into the skin).

Read more at Sci Tech Daily.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, so far this season, influenza has already claimed 1,300 lives in the U.S. and also estimates there have been at least 2.8 million illnesses and 23,000 hospitalizations.

Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths for the flu have now almost doubled since the week prior– for the second week in a row.

“Here we are again thinking about and planning for a surge that will be really hard for us to absorb over the next couple of months,” Dr. Brendan Carr, a professor and system chair of the department of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Health System, told ABC News.

Overall, respiratory illnesses including flu are hitting young children especially hard potentially due to the recent relaxation of pandemic-era prevention efforts. So far, there have been five influenza-associated deaths in children this season- with three deaths reported this past week.

Read more at ABC.