Tag: Hospitalization

It’s once again time to get your flu shot!
It’s important to get the flu shot every year, no matter how old you are. It’s particularly important for older adults. And, it is all the more important with Covid-19 surging. Now that it’s sweater weather, it’s time to get your flu shot!

Talk to your doctor about getting the flu shot and about whether you should get a special vaccine available for people over 65. The good news: Medicare covers the full cost of a flu shot.

You do not need to go to the doctor’s office for your flu shot. You can likely get the flu shot at your local pharmacy or your local supermarket. More pharmacies are offering drive-through and curbside flu shots, in addition to in-store vaccines.

Why get the flu shot now? That’s how you best protect yourself, the people you love and your community. The flu, like Covid-19, can be lethal. It kills thousands of people each year. Because people have been taking precautions against Covid-19 though, in 2021-22, the CDC found a significant drop in hospitalizations and deaths from the flu. Ten thousand people in the US were hospitalized from the flu and 5,000 people died. Older adults are more likely to die from the flu than younger people.

The flu vaccine takes between two and four weeks to become effective. So, even if you get it now, it might not protect you from the flu until the end of October. It will not protect you from Covid-19, though the symptoms can be quite similar–a cough, a cold, sore throat, fever. You should also talk to your doctor about getting the Covid-19 booster shot, now available; also ask whether you should get the new RSV vaccine.

Sometimes the flu shot will not keep you from getting the flu. However, even if you get the flu, the flu shot reduces the odds that it will be a severe case. The flu shot may keep you from being hospitalized for the flu or, worse still, from being in the intensive care unit of the hospital. It also reduces your risk of death.

You shouldn’t wait to get the flu shot. No one knows whether the flu season will begin this month or next. You want to protect yourself as soon as possible.

You need the flu shot even if you haven’t gotten the flu before. (There is one exception: People who are allergic to the flu vaccine.) There is only benefit from getting the flu shot. The flu shot cannot give you the flu.

Here’s some good news: Everything you are doing to protect yourself from Covid-19–social distancing, wearing a mask and regular hand washing–should also minimize your chance of getting the flu!

A version of this post was originally published on September 9, 2020.

Here’s more from Just Care:
September 25, 2023
Coronavirus: A new pill treats the virus
A new pill, Paxlovid, treats the novel coronavirus after you become infected. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved it for emergency use. Three infectious disease experts at Yale Medicine explain that Paxlovid is an antiviral pill that can prevent older people and immunocompromised people from being hospitalized and dying as a result of COVID-19.

How do you get Paxlovid? Your doctor must prescribe it for you and can do so if you test positive for COVID-19. Anyone over 18 who weighs at least 88 pounds can get a prescription if they are at “high risk” of getting a severe case of COVID-19, either because of age or a serious underlying medical condition, such as diabetes or cancer.

How quickly must I take Paxlovid for it to work? You must take Paxlovid within five days of getting COVID-19 symptoms. If you wait longer, there is a high likelihood that COVID will have already affected your system, and Paxlovid will not be able to erase its effects.

How well does Paxlovid work? You take a three-pill dose two times each day for five days. Nearly nine in ten fewer people who took Paxlovid in a clinical trial were hospitalized than those who did not.

How much does Paxlovid cost? It’s free so long as the COVID-19 public health emergency continues. As of now, the public health emergency will last at least until July.

Is Paxlovid the only drug that treats COVID-19? Molnupiravir (Lagevrio) also treats COVID-19, but its efficacy in terms of preventing hospitalization is not nearly as good as Paxlovid. Paxlovid is also far easier to take than remdesivir, which is administered through an IV.

Does Paxlovid have side effects? It’s too early to know all the side effects of Paxlovid. The FDA has a fact sheet of known side effects. As a general rule, you should not have serious side effects. But, your taste buds might change slightly or you could get diarrhea. In addition, your blood pressure might increase and you could develop muscle aches.

Can I take Paxlovid if I am taking other medicines? It depends. There are interactions if you are a transplant patient taking organ anti-rejection drugs, or if you are taking certain drugs for heart arrhythmias, or if you are taking blood thinners and cholesterol-lowering medicines.

If I cannot take Paxlovid, are there other drugs I can take to reduce my risk of hospitalization? If it is too risky for you to take Paxlovid, you might be able to take sotrovimab (a single IV injection) and remdesivir (a three-day IV injection,) or molnupiravir, another oral medicine.

Why should I get vaccinated and get booster shots if I can get Paxlovid? As efficacious as Paxlovid is, you are still at risk of hospitalization if you get the coronavirus. Getting the vaccine and booster shots reduce those risks.

Here’s more from Just Care:
April 20, 2022
Coronavirus: Booster shots reduce risk of hospitalization
The New York Times reports on the value of Covid-19 booster shots in preventing hospitalization, particularly for people 50 and older. Still, everyone, including people who have had booster shots are best-off wearing N95 masks whenever indoors and around other people.

The Centers for Disease Control just released new data showing that people with booster shots are much less likely to be hospitalized than people who are not vaccinated. Booster shots are also a good weapon against Covid-19 infection to begin with. But, vaccinated or not, you should not be going without a surgical mask, ideally an N95 mask, when around other people indoors.

People over 50 who have not been vaccinated are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized than people who received two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. The risk of hospitalization for those unvaccinated is 2.5 times greater still than those who had received a booster shot. Unvaccinated adults between the ages of 50 and 64 have a 44 times greater likelihood of being hospitalized than people who had received the booster shot as well.

Risk of hospitalization for the unvaccinated over 65 is even higher than for those under 65. People over 65 have a 49 times higher likelihood of hospitalization than people their age who had received a booster.

Interestingly, getting Covid affords people more protection against the Delta virus than vaccinations, according to the CDC. The CDC has not yet determined the efficacy of booster shots against Omicron and whether getting Omicron delivers more protection than a booster shot.

But, the CDC has now reported that wearing cloth masks offers far less protection than wearing a surgical mask. And, the Washington Post explains why the best mask to wear to protect yourself against Covid-19 is an N95. In short, it fits snugly to your skin around the edges and is made of a material that blocks the novel coronavirus particles from slipping through it with 95 percent efficacy.

Everyone can reduce the risk of getting Covid by using an N95 or KN95 mask instead of a cloth mask. N95 masks are now widely available. If you are buying masks, choose those. The Biden administration is now giving out free masks through community health centers (sometimes called FQHCs) and through participating pharmacies, such as CVS and Walmart. You can visit this CDC webpage to see how to ensure the mask you buy is not counterfeit.

Here’s more from Just Care:
January 25, 2022