Few people are rolling up their sleeves for the new COVID, flu and RSV vaccines, even as peak respiratory virus season is looming, according to state and federal data.
Federal officials moved this year to make COVID-19 vaccines more like a yearly flu shot, a major shift in vaccination strategy. respiratory virus seasonThe latest data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health shows just 9% of residents have received the shot since the latest boosters started to roll out in mid-September.
The RSV vaccine is available for people at high risk of illness from RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, while the COVID and flu shots are recommended for6 months and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “There’s a sense of complacency,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. “People are just not as uptight about COVID as they were.”
Dr. Larry Madoff, medical director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at the state's Department of Public Health, also urged people to get vaccinated, noting hybrid immunity — from prior infection and vaccinations — is the most protective. There are also disparities by race and ethnicity. Almost 10% of white residents in Massachusetts have received COVID shots this fall, compared with less than 3% of Black or Hispanic residents.
Doctors and hospitals are hoping to avoid a “tripledemic,” in which all three respiratory viruses peak around the same time, straining the health care system.severely ill from RSV. This year, there are two new options to protect babies from the virus. One is the vaccine, which pregnant women can take in the third trimester to provide immunity to infants in the first six months of life. The other is a preventive monoclonal antibody treatment that is administered to babies after birth.
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