What about the myths that people have about getting the flu vaccine make me sick?
Dr. Amanda Ward, Hospitalist at GBMC: So that's a really great question. And the answer to that is no, the flu vaccine doesn't give you the flu. It can give you side effects, however, because your body is responding to the vaccine, just as it should. So you may get pain at the injection site, and you may come down with a headache, fevers, or chills that might last you know, 12 to 24 hours. But certainly, if you come down with the flu and or not prevent it, you're looking at five to seven days of flu symptoms. So the side effects that you get from the flu vaccine are not the flu itself, but just your body's immune response to that flu, those blue particles.
How is the new COVID-19 bilateral booster different from an annual flu shot?
Dr. Amanda Ward, Hospitalist at GBMC: As far as the COVID-19 vaccine goes, the new bivalent vaccine covers not only the initial strain of COVID-19 but also two variants of Omicron. The BA four and the BA five are quite prevalent in our community at this time. So you're getting additional coverage with the new bivalent vaccine.
Tell us about this recommendation for older adults getting immunizations.
Dr. Amanda Ward,Hospitalist at GBMC: The CDC has done a lot of studies in particular for patients that are 65 years and older. We know half of our hospitalizations are of patients who are 65 or older. You know, it's very serious for them. Additionally, we also know that about 70 to 85% of the people who are going to die this year from the flu are 65 and older. So there's been a lot of focus on creating vaccines that are specific to that population. There are three in particular that we're recommending this year. One is called the flu zone. One is the flu block. And when is the flu add. And we're recommending these for patients 65 and older, because they have two of them are high dose, meaning that they have three to four times the amount of antigen in them in order for your body to have more of a robust response to that vaccine. The flu add has some additives to the vaccine in order to give your immune system a little bit more of a robust response to that vaccine.
Doctor, what are the symptoms between COVID and the flu?
Dr. Theresa T. Nguyen, acting chair of pediatrics at GBMC and a pediatrician with GBMC Health Partners – Pediatrics: They're similar in that it can present initially as if cold symptoms; cough, runny nose, sore throat. The current Omicron variant is giving people kind of like an intense cold, and may or may not have a fever with it. The flu additionally, always come with fever, maybe fevers and chills, and body aches. But COVID can also have body aches. So it's going to be hard to differentiate the two. We do have testing that you can do at the pediatrician's office to see what's flu versus COVID. And right now, we can also test for COVID at home. And if you're symptomatic, your home testing is very appropriate for COVID.
What would your advice be for parents who are kind of on the fence about whether or not to get the vaccine?
Dr. Theresa T. Nguyen, acting chair of pediatrics at GBMC and a pediatrician with GBMC Health Partners – Pediatrics: I am going to really beg people to please vaccinate their children for both the flu and COVID. It is really important, even now ever more important than the last two years of COVID because no one's masking anymore, right. And all the children are back in preschool, daycare and school. And holidays are coming up guys. Thanksgiving, Christmas New Years. There's going to be a lot of gatherings indoors, and who are the traditional vectors of spreading illness. It's the young children, right? We don't want to get our elderly sick. No one wants to get sick from the flu and certainly or COVID. But together we will not have medical capacity to treat all these children should they get severely ill. We've had bed shortages for the pediatric intensive care units in the state of Maryland for the last two weeks. We've had to send children to other states when they needed pediatric intensive care
When can children get the flu vaccine as well as the COVID booster shot?
Dr. Theresa T. Nguyen, acting chair of pediatrics at GBMC and a pediatrician with GBMC Health Partners – Pediatrics: Absolutely. And this is what I'm advocating flu vaccine and COVID Booster or COVID vaccine for the first time, at the same time. Totally, totally okay. And the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you do that if your child needs a flu vaccine right now and needs the COVID vaccine as part of the original series or as part of a booster.
We're coming up on another flu season and a lot of people calling it a twin demic would you call it endemic?
Dr. Ibukunolupo Oni, MPH, Infectious Disease Physician at GBMC Health Partners Infectious Diseases: Well, so far, so good, we have somewhat escaped that impact of having, by, you know, dual epidemic at the same time, in the US so far, but it can definitely be a twin demic. It's possible. We have seen it in the countries in the southern hemisphere, they had quite a bad season of both flu and COVID. Over the past few months. Yes.
Tell me about the new, the new variant, the COVID-19 variant that's that is out there. And is there a new booster for that?
Dr. Ibukunolupo Oni, MPH, Infectious Disease Physician at GBMC Health Partners Infectious Diseases: So, right now what we're dealing with is the Omicron variant and has been around for the past few months. And that is the dominant variant at this time. So they have developed both Pfizer and Moderna, these new booster shots are actually targeting this current variant. And that's why it's called a bivalent COVID booster because it's targeting components of the original COVID 19 infection in addition to the variant so that we have better protection overall.
How is this new COVID Booster different? And will it be like the annual flu shot?
Dr. Ibukunolupo Oni, MPH, Infectious Disease Physician at GBMC Health Partners Infectious Diseases: It has this new component that involves the variant and also the older one. The original COVID-19 virus itself. And then will it be yearly like the flu shot is. It's hard to tell at this point, you know, really where we're going with this but um, it's something that is possible.
Now, what flu shots are available this year and how effective are the flu shots?
Dr. Ibukunolupo Oni, MPH, Infectious Disease Physician at GBMC Health Partners Infectious Diseases: So each time every year the flu shots adverse is revised, you know, based on what we had experienced the last season and a couple of other key components to consider for them to like design yearly flu shots, so it's always different year to year. It is hard to tell for now how effective it will be we will tell time will tell and we will know soon enough.
