Get your shots, despite troubling silence

As the weather cools, children are back in school and more gatherings take place indoors, it’s the time for federal health officials to encourage people to get their annual flu and COVID-19 vaccines.

But this year, the chaos and misinformation that inundated the nation’s public health network are undercutting the important messaging about seasonal vaccines, increasing the possibility that more people will fall ill this winter.

The trouble starts with the silence. Rather than issuing new recommendations, or public service campaigns, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said little about this year’s immunizations to protect against COVID-19, flu or RSV. While the shots themselves have been approved, federal recommendations and guidance are unclear or nonexistent. The CDC’s website on COVID features last year’s pitch, emphasizing “individual-based decision-making.” The CDC updated its flu-related webpage, but it too refers to last year’s advice.

Availability, too, is a concern. The CDC hasn’t even started this year’s Vaccines for Children program, which provides free shots for more than half the nation’s children, including those uninsured or underinsured. That means vulnerable kids cannot be protected — and parents who want to vaccinate their children cannot. That’s a situation that should be unacceptable even to vaccine skeptics, who’ve long suggested that those who want to vaccinate should be able to.

For those with commercial insurance, vaccines are ready to go — at physicians’ offices, clinics, drugstores and more. There’s reason to be particularly optimistic about this year’s shots. For those 50 and over, a new flu shot, called mFlusiva, utilizes messenger RNA technology and was found to be 27% more effective than the traditional flu vaccine. While the standard shot uses an inactive virus to encourage the immune system to fight the flu, the mRNA shot uses genetic code to teach the body about the flu — and how to fight it. Older adults should ask for it; hopefully it’ll be approved for younger patients in the future.

The COVID vaccine, meanwhile, remains important to our healthcare, too. COVID cases have jumped across Long Island, with 61 new hospitalized cases in a single week, compared with between 13 and 21 weekly earlier this summer. That’s obviously a vast improvement from the pandemic’s ebbs and flows, but it still warrants attention. Particularly affected are those with other health conditions that might exacerbate COVID. The vaccine is critical to protect them from serious illness or hospitalization.

The state Health Department must now fill in the missing pieces with its own information and advocacy campaigns. Offering additional vaccination opportunities, through mobile vans or new sites, like religious institutions or other community gathering spots, would help. Also key: making sure vaccines are covered by insurance and that those with Medicare or Medicaid, or do not have insurance, can get the shots.

With such efforts, Long Islanders can overcome any doubts and protect themselves and those in their community from becoming seriously ill this winter.