During the fall and winter months, respiratory infections such as flu, COVID-19, and RSV can surge. People who are vaccinated lower their risk of getting seriously ill and needing medical care if they get infected. About 70% of adults in the United States say they probably or definitely will get a flu shot, and over 50% say they probably or definitely will get an updated COVID-19 vaccine. While many people are ready to get this season’s vaccines, others might still have questions.

Read more at The Crusader.

With the cold weather and the holidays, you’re likely spending more time indoors with family and friends. It’s also likely you or someone you’re celebrating with hasn’t gotten the flu vaccine or the COVID-19 shot.

“When people are out of work and out of school and sort of congregating, it’ll promote the spread of it,” said Dr. Michelle Barron, the senior medical director of Infection Prevention at UCHealth.

Read more at Denver 7.

Waning vaccine coverage has fueled a 20% spike in measles cases worldwide, with 10.3 million people struck by the preventable illness in 2023, health officials reported Wednesday.

“Inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases,” of what was once a common childhood disease, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a joint statement issued by both agencies.

“The number of measles infections are rising around the globe, endangering lives and health,” CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said in the statement. “The measles vaccine is our best protection against the virus, and we must continue to invest in efforts to increase access.”

Read more at U.S. News.

Current guidelines recommend that pregnant people receive a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)—which typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms in most adults but can be deadly for infants—during weeks 32–36 of pregnancy. New research led by investigators at Mass General Brigham suggests that vaccination earlier in that timeframe, closer to 32 weeks, could provide the best protection for newborns against RSV. The findings are published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Read more at Medical Xpress.

More than 1 in 5 Americans likely suffer from long COVID, a new AI-assisted review has found.

The analysis suggests that nearly 23% of U.S. adults experience the symptoms of long COVID, according to results published Nov. 8 in the journal Med.

That’s much higher than the 7% prevalence of long COVID that’s been suggested by other studies, researchers said.

“Questions about the true burden of long COVID — questions that have thus far remained elusive — now seem more within reach,” said senior researcher Hossein Estiri, head of AI research at Mass General Brigham in Boston.

Read more at U.S. News.

The first pediatric flu death of the season has been reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The youth was infected with influenza A and died in mid-October. Last season, 204 children died of flu, breaking the record for a non-pandemic season.

Flu activity is low nationally, but there have been slight increases among children and adolescents. Washington, D.C., is experiencing high levels of flu.

Read more at AAP.

If you missed the early fall push for flu and COVID-19 vaccines, it’s not too late.

Health officials say it’s important to get vaccinated ahead of the holidays, when respiratory bugs tend to spread with travel and indoor celebrations.

Those viruses haven’t caused much trouble so far this fall. But COVID-19 tends to jump in the winter months, a rise that usually starts around Thanksgiving and peaks in January.

And that coincides with flu season, which tends to start in November or December and peak in January or February.

Read more at AP.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is recommended for most adults up to age 45 who were not vaccinated as adolescents.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Trusted Source, the adult HPV vaccination schedule is as follows:

• The second dose is given 1 to 2 months after the first dose.
• The third dose is given 6 months after the first dose.

While the vaccine is most effective when administered before exposure to HPV (typically during adolescence), it can still offer protection for adults against certain HPV strains that lead to genital warts and cancers.

Read more at Healthline.

It’s vaccination season, which for most people means getting immunized for flu and COVID-19 (and RSV for infants, pregnant women, or people 75 and older).

Public-health officials have said before that getting the two shots at the same time is safe, but some people have remained worried about receiving both vaccines together. Now, a new study confirms that safety. In what the researchers say is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial analyzing the side effects of the co-administration of the vaccines in the U.S., they found no difference among people who received the COVID-19 and flu shots simultaneously in different arms and those who got the shots spaced apart by a week or two.

Read more at Time.

More than five times as many pertussis cases had been reported as of mid-October compared with the same time last year, according to provisional numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, is characterized by persistent, chronic fits of coughing followed by a “whoop” sound, and is sometimes called the “100-day cough.”

Read more at The Washington Post.