Updated vaccines can get us through cold season if we let them

August was National Immunization Awareness Month, but during the waning days of summer, the threat of respiratory viruses may not have been top of mind for most of us. Now, with cookouts and beach days mostly behind us, it’s time to get back to work and focus on protecting ourselves with recommended vaccinations. 

Just as each of us should take these important steps to protect our own health, healthcare leaders, providers and policymakers need to do their part to encourage and enable widespread vaccinations this fall. With the worst of cold and flu season yet to arrive, now is the time to prepare for looming respiratory health risks.   

Though the federal public health emergency officially ended in May, the risks from COVID-19 have not disappeared. COVID-19 infection rates are increasing and hospitalizations and deaths trended up at the end of August. People who are immunocompromised or have other conditions, such as obesity, are at increasingly high risk. 

COVID-19 isn’t the only threat that Americans need to address. Diseases such as the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also pose significant health risks to many.  

In the decade between 2010 and 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there were as many as 41 million cases of flu that resulted in as many as 710,000 hospitalizations and 52,000 deaths per year.  

Each year, thousands of American adults also die from complications of RSV infection, a common virus that causes cold-like symptoms in most people who get infected. However, for adults with chronic lung or heart disease, immunocompromised adults and adults older than 65, the risks are much greater.  

While we’re talking about preventable health risks, let’s not forget about pneumococcal pneumonia. Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospitalization for children and adults — and it kills more than 40,000 Americans annually.   

These pesky little bugs can do real harm, especially to vulnerable people. We have the tools to mitigate these risks — vaccines — but to ensure a critical mass of Americans gets fully vaccinated is a tall order based on where we are today.  

Just a third of American adults report being fully vaccinated with a recent booster shot for COVID-19, according to Pew Research Center. CDC data suggests the true figure is lower, with only 21 percent of Americans over 18 fully up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations. Among people over 65 — the group most at risk for severe disease — only 43 percent are fully vaccinated. 

Low vaccination rates aren’t just a problem with COVID-19. In the 2022-2023 flu season, fewer than half (47 percent) of American adults got vaccinated against influenza, according to the CDC. Among people of color, the rate was substantially lower. Just 35 percent of Hispanic adults and 39 percent of both non-Hispanic Black adults and American Indian/Alaskan Native adults had gotten a flu shot.  

RSV vaccines are now available and recommended for people ages 60 and older, as are vaccines against pneumococcal pneumonia, which also rears its ugly head during the winter months. Though pneumococcal vaccinations are available, less than one-quarter of American adults have ever gotten one. People who are most vulnerable to pneumonia — including people over 65 and people with other health conditions — should be asking their healthcare providers for this vital protection, too. 

Whether it’s about protecting against seasonal risks or one-time vaccines for conditions such as shingles, consumer behavior needs to be the same: Find out what vaccinations you need and then go get them.  

Yet consumers can’t be expected to stay up to date on all the vaccination guidelines and recommendations. We need information and support to make good vaccination decisions for ourselves. And every type of healthcare stakeholder has a role to play.  

Healthcare providers must be prepared to answer questions and promote recommended vaccines. More than that, they should make it a practice to invite conversations about their patients’ vaccine preferences. Many vaccines are recommended only with shared decision-making, a process of involving patients in treatment decisions and weighing the patient’s preference heavily. It may seem obvious that healthcare decisions should be informed by the patient’s preference, but incorporating the patient’s voice into care requires intentional effort on the part of providers, especially where many vaccines are concerned.  

Public health professionals and public officials need to craft and convey clear messages to inform the public of their options so people can formulate their preferences. Recommendations and options change from year to year, and the public needs straightforward guidance about who should get what vaccines and when. Credible messengers must be deployed to combat rampant misinformation with clear, comprehensible messages about vaccine safety and benefits. 

And vaccines must be easily accessible and affordable so that everyone who wants to get vaccinated can. Insurers should continue covering vaccines at no cost to individuals, and policymakers should encourage or even require that they do.  

Vaccines only work to protect the health of the population if enough people get them. We all need to do our part. 

Martha Nolan is a senior policy advisor at HealthyWomen. HealthyWomen works to educate women ages 35 to 64 to make informed health choices.