LOS ANGELES (KABC) — As COVID-19 vaccines begin to arrive at local pharmacies, federal health officials from various agencies are sending a unified message: Now is the time to plan when you all the vaccinations you need to stay safe this fall and winter.
“The updated vaccine is highly compatible with the KP.3 family of viruses, which continues to grow in dominance,” said Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
She urges Americans to get vaccinated against COVID and flu together.
“In a direct comparison between flu and COVID, COVID continues to be the more dangerous virus in terms of what puts more people in the hospital and what kills more people,” she said.
Dangerous as more contagious and deadly.
“Last year in the United States, according to CDC statistics, I believe about 20,000 people died from the flu,” said Dr. Otto Yang, associate director of the division of infectious diseases at UCLA’s Geffen School of Medicine. “About 75,000 people died from COVID.”
Major pharmacy distributors say shipments of the new, updated COVID vaccine are expected to arrive later this week, with appointments available starting the first week of September. Most Americans have not received a COVID vaccination in the last one to two years.
“It’s not the vaccines that prevent disease, it’s the vaccinations. It’s about getting the vaccines into arms,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the Food and Drug Administration.
The new version is approved for anyone six months of age and older. In addition to COVID and flu, health authorities are urging pregnant women, high-risk patients between the ages of 60 and 74, and anyone aged 75 and over to get vaccinated against RSV.
“These recommendations are for people who have not received an RSV vaccine in the last year,” Cohen said. “Use the tools we have: vaccines, testing and treatment.”
Long COVID remains a focus for health authorities and is another important reason to get the new vaccine.
“Those who are vaccinated, whether with one, two or three vaccinations, have a lower risk for long COVID,” Marks said.
According to the FDA, you can get the updated vaccine at least two months after your last vaccination.
If your COVID test was recently positive, the CDC recommends waiting three months after getting COVID before getting the updated version.
And for the third year in a row, the government plans to relaunch its covidtests.gov website at the end of September and offer up to four free tests to each household.
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