Vaccines for pets are critically important for several reasons. They’re essential to maintain the health and well-being of domesticated animals and to prevent the spread of diseases to humans. But in recent years there has been a decline in vaccination rates and trust by pet owners, especially those who own dogs.

The growing vaccine hesitancy in recent years is in no small part due to misinformation and disinformation about human vaccinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the hesitancy and misinformation is beginning to spill over to pet owners, who are delaying or refusing vaccines for their animals. This poses major public health concerns for humans and canines alike given that 45% of U.S. households own a dog and some diseases that affect dogs, called zoonotic diseases, can also affect humans.

Read more at Forbes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a vaccine for people in late pregnancy that will protect their babies from respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, after birth.

Last week’s guidance comes shortly after another RSV shot was approved and recommended by government agencies that protects infants and high-risk toddlers heading into their first or second RSV season.

“This is another tool we can use this fall and winter to help protect lives,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the CDC. “I encourage parents to talk to their doctors about how to protect their little ones against serious RSV illness, using either a vaccine given during pregnancy, or an RSV immunization given to your baby after birth.”

Read more at USA Today.

An independent panel of advisers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that everyone over the age of 6 months get the updated COVID vaccine this fall.

“Even children and adults with no underlying conditions can still experience severe illness due to COVID,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, an adjunct associate professor of medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Most infectious disease experts agree with the recommendations made by the federal health agency.

Read more at ABC.

COVID vaccines have been updated to include protection against new variants of the virus that are currently circulating, but that’s not the only thing that has changed. Equally significant is that the vaccine is largely no longer paid for by the federal government, now that the Public Health Emergency for the pandemic, in place from January 2020 until last May, has ended.

That means that most of the COVID shots will now be paid for by insurance, whether private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. Medicare and Medicaid pay the full cost, as do most private insurers.

Read more at Verywell Health.

More than three years since COVID-19 reached these shores, widespread misinformation continues to inhibit reasonable measures intended to keep the vulnerable safe and to protect public health.

The latest fiction riling folks up is the falsehood that a new COVID wave will usher in the return of statewide mask mandates, school closures or business restrictions. But this isn’t 2020 and it’s important those myths be dispelled.

It’s true that there are new variants of the virus widely circulating across the United States, including here in Virginia. This was expected and public health officials have been closely monitoring the spread of these mutations and their danger to the general population.

Read more at Bedford Gazette.

Every year since 2010, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that everyone in the country ages 6 months and older receive a flu vaccine.

But that has resulted in just fewer than half of all adults and about 58% of kids getting the shot each year, according to CDC data.

Covid-19 vaccines have a ways to go to catch up. Just 21% of US adults received a bivalent booster, the last version available before the US Food and Drug Administration authorized an updated Covid vaccine this month. Among kids, the numbers are much lower: less than 8% of everyone under 18.

Read more at CNN.

Viral respiratory season is set to ramp up in the coming weeks and already, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is projecting this year will be a repeat of last.

While health officials still don’t know what this season is going to look like, the CDC is projecting that the triple threat of COVID-19, flu and RSV could place a significant strain on the nation’s healthcare system during the colder months.

Since the beginning of August, Colorado has seen an increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19, and state health officials can’t say for sure whether that’s going to level out and decline before we see another winter increase, or if we’re just going to continue to see a gradual increase into the winter season.

Read more at Denver 7.

September 15 marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, an annual reminder and chance to honor the countless contributions made by members of the Hispanic community to the United States. This is always an opportunity both for celebration and reflection.

A great deal of important work must keep moving forward to tackle inequities in access to care and improve patient outcomes in Hispanic communities. This challenge is not only present in the long-term but must also be kept in mind and addressed now as we come up on both RSV as well as flu season. Furthermore, in this post-pandemic world, new strains of COVID remain concerning in this new normal.

Read more at Bio.News.

With kids back in school, COVID hospitalizations on the rise across the country and flu season right around the corner, health experts say now is the time to get young people vaccinated.

In addition to COVID-19 and flu, another respiratory virus, RSV, is also circulating, according to Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a primary care pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City.

“Most kids are going back to school, or have already been back in school for several weeks and, unfortunately, we are starting to see viruses that are circulating at the same time,” Bracho-Sanchez told “Good Morning America.” “This is definitely the time you want to make sure your children are protected against these serious respiratory viruses.”

Read more at ABC News

Moderna said Wednesday that its experimental mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine generated a stronger immune response against four strains of the flu virus than a currently marketed vaccine in a Phase 3 study, paving the way for the company to discuss a path to approval with regulators.

The experimental shot, dubbed mRNA-1010, was compared with a currently approved seasonal flu vaccine from GSK called Fluarix. The results are from an interim analysis and were disclosed in a company news release Wednesday morning.

The announcement doesn’t come in time to affect this year’s flu season as the vaccine still needs to go through the regulatory approval process.

Read more at CNN