Even before the COVID pandemic turned the world the wrong way up, public health officials and medical personnel urged people every fall to get vaccinated before the cold and cough season.
But now, as the times get shorter and the weather gets cooler, and respiratory virus season approaches, the chance is even higher when COVID can be in play. Although the virus has change into less deadly because it first spread in 2020, COVID was still chargeable for nearly 7,000 deaths within the Golden State last yr, greater than 15 times the variety of flu deaths expected in 2023, in line with data from the California Department of Public Health.
Before the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention really helpful that everybody aged 6 months and older be vaccinated against influenza yearlywith a selected concentrate on the very young and elderly. Tens of 1000’s of individuals die of the flu yearly across the country, and in a nasty yr the figure was over 50,000.
Now the CDC recommends vaccination against COVID and flu for everybody 6 months and older. This is the second yr that an annually updated COVID vaccine will likely be released in the autumn, and health care providers are encouraging people to get each vaccines.
“Every year, a new variant of the virus circulates,” said Paul Waldron, an infectious disease doctor at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose. “That's always been the case with the flu and appears to be true for COVID as well,” he said. “Even if you've had the vaccine before, we recommend that you get both shots again.”
As preparations for the winter respiratory virus season begin, California is just recovering from this summer's stubborn COVID wave. Starting in May, positivity rates – the proportion of COVID tests that come back positive – began to rise rapidly, eventually peaking in early August. Now the The positivity rate has dropped from almost 13% to below 11%in line with the state's weekly data update on Friday.
While the typical variety of day by day COVID deaths was significantly lower than at first of the pandemic, it began to rise again in June and July, and was just over 20 deaths per day by early August. That was just months after the record low, when the state recorded its first day with no COVID deaths in April 2024.
With the surge in COVID cases last winter, the typical variety of deaths per day at its peak was around 30, dwarfing the typical of over 600 deaths in January 2021.
In anticipation of the upcoming cold season, Kaiser Permanente, other health care providers and pharmacies across the country are promoting the vaccines now that each annual formulations can be found.
Kaiser patients can now walk into any vaccination clinic in Northern California to get their flu and COVID shots without an appointment. Most insurance policy cover COVID-19 vaccines, in line with the state Department of Health, but check together with your doctor or local pharmacy for more information.
When vaccines first rolled out in California, COVID vaccination rates were high, but because the virus has change into less deadly, fewer persons are getting the updated vaccines. While higher vaccination rates mean fewer hospitalizations overall, doctors and health care providers are most concerned about older patients and people with compromised immune systems.
“The vaccines are really great at reducing the severity of infections,” said Dr. Waldron. “They prevent you from having to go to the hospital, especially if you're in the high-risk group.”
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