These Are the Shots You Should Get This Fall and Winter

It used to be relatively easy and straightforward to navigate the fall and winter respiratory disease season in the U.S.—get a flu shot. Then came COVID-19, and another vaccine was added to the mix. Now, for the first time, there will be a third shot for some groups: a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes respiratory disease that can be especially dangerous for infants and older people. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Here’s what experts say about who should be receiving which shots, and when. Flu (the easy one) The advice here is straightforward and the same as it’s always been: “Everybody should be getting a flu shot,” says Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) expert vaccine committee. Everybody, that is, who is eligible, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines as anyone six months or older. The flu vaccine’s efficacy varies widely from year to year, since health officials have to make their best guess about which strains of influenza will be circulating months ahead of time, in order to give the vaccine makers enough time to produce the shot. Historically, the seasonal flu shot has been 40% to 60% effective in protecting people from getting sick with the flu, according to the CDC. Each year, about ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news