Region V: Protecting Yourself for a Healthier Winter - A Conversation on Flu, COVID-19, and RSV

good afternoon everyone we will get started in just a moment all right thank you for joining HHS Region 5 protect yourself for a healthier winter a conversation on flu covid-19 and RSV my name is Betsy weand and I'm the public health policy adviser in the office of intergovernmental and external Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services this briefing is open to the public however the conversation should be considered off the Record and any press inquiries for HHS should be directed to the Press office at media hhs.gov there will be time at the end for Q&A so we encourage you to submit your questions using the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen at any time during the briefing I'd now like to turn it over to today's moderator Michael carbonari director for region five of the US Department of Health and Human Services region five encompasses Illinois Michigan Ohio Indiana Wisconsin Minnesota and 34 indigenous tribal Nations director carbon Argy the floor is yours Betsy thanks so much hi everyone I'm so pleased to welcome you to an important conversation about about how we can ready ourselves for a healthier winter and some of our best tools for protecting ourselves vaccines from influenza or the flu covid-19 respiratory cissal virus or RSV as Regional director of the Great Lakes region I'm proud to lead this webinar in support of the US Department of Health and Human Services risk less do more Campaign which helps people risk less from severe illness and do more of what they enjoy this winter by sharing information and encouraging uptake of the flu covid-19 and RSV vaccines we're joined today by a great group of experts from our co-hosting organizations Karen Podolski serves as director of Community Affairs for Northwestern Medicine working closely with Community Partners to help them navigate health challenges including flu and covid-19 Karen holds a master's degree in nursing Dr Ry Barnes serves as medical director and chief medical officer of the Illinois Department of Public health and in our current and previous roles helped organize the covid-19 clinical and policy responses Dr Eric midus serves as Chief Executive Officer of Cook County Health to advance the health systems strategic imperatives and ensure the provision of highquality care and services Dr midus is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician Dr Alexander soloda serves as medical director of immunization and emergency preparedness for the Chicago Department of Public Health Dr saot is an emergency medicine physician and to our participants who are with us today thank you if you didn't submit a question when you registered I invite you to ask your question in the chat box now so let's dive into our discussion with our panelist today we're going to talk about a very important topic how to protect our health this season for many it's a season of Celebration and gathering with family and friends but it's also a time when we're more likely to be exposed to respiratory viruses so I'd like to start with some basics with so many people preparing for the holidays or trying to finish end ofe War projects why is it important to be thinking about respiratory viruses now uh Arty if you'd like to start us off yes and thank you all for taking the time to be here today and then really focus on this important issue right now we are starting to see a small rise in our three main respiratory viruses covid flu and RSV and I think it's important to pay attention to what's going on in your community these infections can be devastating for those who don't have uh the best protection against it and whether it's your body's own immune system that's trying to defend against it or the ability to just you know protect yourself in the work that you do and stay with your mask get vaccinated um all of those things can really make a difference to how well help you handle these pretty serious viruses these this season so we're starting to see an update in Illinois and we have a lot of tools at our Arsenal to find out even at a local county level how much is how much in how much is the burden of these infections in our community so pay attention to those and try to protect yourself as best as you can thank you uh Dr Barnes um along with that I don't know if if U Karen if you'd like to share your experience at Northwestern what are you seeing in terms of of office visits hospitalization and other indicators of respiratory virus spread sure just like Dr Barnes mentioned about an uptick in cases we've also seen uptick and severity as well so those that um maybe not as prevalent in the previous few years but still definitely is out there we've definitely seen a rise over the past couple of weeks as well as an increase in severity so it's important to kind of keep track of things and and take care of yourself especially now as we're Gathering into the holiday season and folks thinking that um you have a lot going on stress is high immune systems are wearing down a lot of activities a lot of Coast Gatherings you know the end of the school year Seasons end of the right before the holiday all those activities at school so be careful and it's so important right now to get vaccinated and take care of yourself right and Karen while while we're talking about the the need and the importance of vaccinations can you talk about what people need to know about how flu covid-19 and RSV affect people what what do these why do these viruses impact some people more than others sure they impact um some people more than others based on their um different components whether it be your age we can immune system be very young in the older population might affect them even worse um they might affect you if you have other comorbidities other factors diabetes obesity things that might be going on that might impact it even more just different things as well as um if you get one illness you might be susceptible to another illness as well while your immune system is weak so different reasons why you might be more susceptible than others that's right thank you um Dr uh slota Alexander can you talk for a minute about um why differ strains of viruses can impact people differently year to year I think folks are uh maybe familiar with the fact that there's different flu strains so over year's flu vaccine may be composed differently but can you talk about the different strains of viruses and maybe some other factors like age or other illnesses that can increase a person's risk uh sure so yeah every year uh for the past uh decade or longer there's been new flu vaccines that come out and they adjust those vaccines based on what kind of strains of uh flu A and B they think are going to be circulating in the population and now we're seeing with covid many of us have heard all these different types of strains for the past few years of covid-19 and that's one issue with covid-19 it is constantly changing it's constantly evolving and so that's why now we're coming out with these new updated vaccines so even though you had vaccines for covid-19 early on in the pandemic 2020 2021 they may not be affording you the same level of protection against these new strains that are coming out that are kind of evolving over the past year or so so last season we had the first updated 23 24 covid-19 vaccine um to protect around for those uh new kind of uh covid-19 variants that we were seeing and again they updated the formulation for the covid-19 vaccine this viral respiratory season in order to protect against what we were seeing in terms of the strains and what we thought were be the predominant strains so uh that's why we really want everybody to get the new updated covid-19 vaccine even if you've been vaccinated with prior covid-19 vaccines before even if you've had infections of covid-19 before because if you had covid-19 a couple years ago it may not give you lasting immunity or a proper protection against the new strains of covid-19 that are going around right now great thank you um uh let's dig into the issue of risk which we've been talking about throughout because these illnesses are extremely common it can lead people with a sense that they're not serious illnesses um who who are the people most at risk for serious illness um Dr midus can you uh maybe share your perspective inside of Cook County Health on on some of the groups that are most at risk for serious illness here yeah absolutely thank you um and hi everybody um so you know we have been seeing an increase in the Ed uh with flu and RSV um visits very much so in our younger populations um so you know our our ICU admissions are primarily children under five um coming in with RSV needing ICU care um we've you know been seeing that uptick that Dr Barnes uh alluded to uh right when we started you know our our positivity rate on RSV for example has gone from 3.6 to 4.9% so almost 5% of the folks we test our coming positive for RSV um similarly uh we're seeing in older populations and those with comorbidities or other kind of long-term illnesses where they they will tend to have more issues with like covid-19 or flu um so you know those are those are some of the more risk factors but I do want to say you know we have seen cases where relatively healthy folks come in and and it just they just have a horrible reaction to you know any of those infections flu covid um you know my own son um was just admitted with a respiratory um infection just before Thanksgiving he spent three days in the hospital um and was vaccinated he's otherwise healthy was very surprising and he's you know 11 years old so thank you thanks Dr mtis um what we you were talking about your son's experience and we've been talking about the impacts on a variety of folks who are at risk folks who may be immuno compromised uh folks who may be older people who live in a larger home setting um just moving on to what are the most important things for people to know as we approach the winter holidays um as I said at the top we're ending in the season where uh people are going to be at the airport for travel they're going to be at office parties with their colleagues they're going to be hosting events in their homes and being guests in other people's homes um so I go I guess I would go back to Dr slota and address it to you and and other folks can certainly jump in as well what's the most important thing for people to know as we approach the winter holidays yeah I think the most important thing to start with is U making sure you're up to date on these vaccinations so making sure you have the new updated uh flu vaccine for this season and the new updated uh covid-19 vaccine for this season anyone six months or older can get either of these vaccines so many people are eligible to get them and like I said regardless of any prior vaccination everyone should still get these new updated vaccines um we'll talk I think a bit more about it later but there's also some immunizations and vaccines for RSB as well for older adults pregnant people and uh infants that are really important as well um and vaccines are just really nice you just get a shot or two um and you have a lot less to worry about so you can kind of go about your life your activities your work your school holidays and not have to worry about it too much um but there's other ways as well um still masking is always a good option if um you want to particularly if you're in enclosed spaces with lots of people or you're traveling you're on a bus on an airplane things like that where there's a lot of people not great circulation and that's why we talk about Co INF flu RSB this time of year is because people are indoors this is just when these viruses are going around um so it's just important to keep that in mind um always kind of stay like hand sanitizer washing your hands frequently particularly before and after eating or if um you have to touch your face or something like that just always kind of keeping that in mind as well so there's a lot of those kind of activities you can do um but that's why we're really stressing we'd like everybody to be aware of these things and get vaccinated because uh still young healthy people can get really sick from uh flu or covid-19 um but also you don't want to make someone else sick um from that so getting vaccinated preventing getting infections can help keep uh maybe someone at higher risk that you live with someone higher risk that you work with or spend a lot of time with keeping them protected as well so it's really about protecting yourself your family and your whole Community with these with whether it's vaccinations or just kind of uh doing these uh different practices to prevent getting infections fantastic thank you um and I just want to jump in and thanks to everyone for putting in your questions in the Q&A we're getting some great questions um and and some of these uh are different ways of asking for the same information so I'm going to put it out to our panel here um is the only way we can prot protect ourselves against uh illness through vaccines uh if we're imuno compromise is there any other way we can keep ourselves safe um what are some other um prevention tools that we might here I guess Dr Slot I'll put it to you and then others here as well we know vaccines are uh definitely in the toolkit for prevention and and of serious illness but what are some other uh resources available yeah so um yeah like I said musicians are always are kind of our front line particularly if you're imuno compromised sometimes maybe you're not eligible for vaccine but usually that's the people we definitely want to get vaccinated is if they're imuno compromised um and they usually have specific indications there so definitely talk to your your provider first if you fall in that category about what immunizations are available to you uh but definitely uh have that discussion with your with your provider um yeah I mean we've talked about masking that's always a good idea so having wearing your mask yourself sometimes you can wear those n95 K 95s to give you a little bit extra protection in terms of viruses that may be circulating in the air um and just uh kind of yeah be mindful of your environment particularly when you're in like we talked about those enclosed spaces um as well and just kind of practing those good kind of respiratory hand hygiene practices um and kind of talking about that maybe with the people you live with and you work with as well um that that is in particular important to you thank you uh and if there's any panelists who want to jump in feel free so if I could just very quickly everything Dr SLA said I completely agree with right vaccines hand hygiene masking um and I think you know he touched on it but just to highlight again the importance of having a very low threshold if especially if you're kind of younger and you have just you feel like the sniffles are you know a little bit of a sore throat and as we're going into all these family gatherings have a low threshold for maybe skipping that Gathering and not exposing your 80-year-old grandfather your brand new niece um you know it's a ounce of prevention right I think I just like to add one more thing I think there's now A New Concept of treatment as prevention too so specifically for flu and covid there are you know options to get treated really fast with antivirals if you're if you know your status if you know that you are uh positive for either either of them so I think it's important to be able to access testing and have a plan with your provider if you're Pro positive to go get treatment from for antivirals now for flu you have to make sure you can get treat treated ideally within that 48 hour mark and for covid you have about 5 days for the oral antivirals from the time your symptoms start um I know it's a big concern for those who are immunosuppressed at least specifically for Co there is now new um pre-exposure prophylaxis mon it's not considered a a vaccine so that's something to again discuss with your provider to see do you qualify and advocate for yourself we've often heard that providers are not always aware of who qualifies for antiviral treatments based on their risk so um if you have conditions that Dr M maak has mentioned before and Dr slod also hinted at uh you you might want to talk to them right away and advocate for yourself about uh needing a plan to get treated as soon as possible if you are positive for one of the two um you know flu or Co that we have antivirals for Dr bar thanks so much and I'm going to keep uh you here and we got a number of the questions that are in the Q&A uh and that go on the Practical side uh which is how do people across Illinois access the vaccinations that they need are there resources that can help make that process of getting vaccinated easier for people across the state including people who may not have insurance all right so yes thankfully you know if there is a website you go to Just vaccines. goov that'll give you an the ability to locate a vaccination provider close to you now in Illinois if you have a child um about 60% of our children are Medicaid or have Medicaid or a Medicaid eligible and you can get what's called a vaccines for children of vfc um vaccine for free this is uh through our vfc program so if you go to idph and look at the idph vfc locator you can find a BFC provider near you now there are also um programs like uh the or and Services I would say like the Illinois Association of free and charitable clinics ICC and there are free clinics not too many but there are a few across the state where you can get services for free uh there are adult immunization programs AIP were uh previously known as 317 program so if you qualify you could also get vaccines at a very low discounted or free rate um so I think those are important to consider including if you have access to go to an fqhc um or places that will be able to provide you that vaccine that's embedded into the cost of the treatment instead of giving you any additional cost to it so I think those are resources to just be aware of um as far as accessing specifically vaccines for treatment there are true treatment there are at least two live treatment access programs through um uh for PX loid as well as for um moper or leavo for covid specific treatments and those are uh accessible to people at large so just um know that there are patient access programs for those treatments too thanks so much and I hand it over to Dr slaboda and then back to Dr Midas for the city and the county perspectives for those folks who might be in the city or or in Cook County uh sure so in the city of Chicago we um are towards the tail end of our big vaccine campaign where we do vaccines at all the city Wards many of the city colleges many uh different Community sites but they'll still continue so you can definitely check our website for uh cdph sponsor vaccine events and at both at those there's free covid-19 and flu vaccine for anybody uh who is interested uh on our website you can also find we have three walking clinics uh for vaccine uh that cover both uh adults and children for covid-19 and flu vaccines as well uh and we also work with a lot of uh like Dr Barn talked about our federally qualified Health Care Centers fqhcs um particularly for uninsured adults uh it's a good place to go to get vaccines um as well and then thankfully we do have the vaccines for children program there's many of those providers uh throughout the city of Chicago so that there's ample uh regardless of what kind of insurance you have opportunities there um and another opportunity is going to a pharmacy uh especially if you do have like even if you have Medicaid Medicare private insurance that's always a good option as well but if you are uninsured we still have many options uh just check out our website and can kind point you in the right direction where to get covid and flu vaccines uh in the city of Chicago thanks thanks Dr s Dr midus thank you um yeah so for the county for for uh Cook County residents um so our health centers uh are able to provide an appointment to anyone uh who wants to get one uh most insurances are going to cover um the vaccines uh however we also have financial assistance programs that can cover up to 100% so you can do um an appointment through uh the phone number 3128640200 uh again that's 3128640200 as well our Cook County Department of Public Health uh is holding uh vaccine clinics at our health centers uh it's every Saturday through February um and you can find those dates at boostup Cook county.com again that's all one word boostup cook county.com great thank you so uh getting some questions about the different types of covid vaccines so Dr barns I'll put it to you and then everyone else can jump in can you talk about the difference differences among the covid vaccines right so you've heard that we have our mRNA vaccine and then we have a vaccine that's more traditionally made the Novartis vaccine um but uh so the two you know the Monna and fiser vaccines are both fairly effective and work well I got my vaccine I gave it to my daughter my three and a halfy old um and I think a little more arm pain this year than previous years but I for the most part a tremendous amount of I think reassurance after looking at the uh even the preliminary data on how this works and knowing that it targets the new circulating variant or that uh the KP uh three variance and that family of variance that's in uh circular ation right now is is very reassuring so um I think importantly we how do I know that this vaccine is a good match right so there is information both at CDC and that your health departments collect including cdph and idph and we survey our weight Wastewater systems to look and see what variants are in circulating and how much we also have dashboards that are starting to Trend different types of infections not just Co flu RSV we just added for example example micoplasma which is a bacteria that's um uh you know can cause a lot of pneumonia and we're seeing it in children and so we're starting to really try to show the public where to get data on knowing what they're at risk for in their local community um more importantly just because it's coming to holiday season and we're going to be traveling and visiting families in different parts of the state or different parts of the country CDC now has a a resp data channel that can give you county level data that tells you what the ER visits are really from as far as the three big respiratory viruses K flu and RSV and so if you're not aware of that I think it's important to be able to know that I can go here and find out what is not just my individual risk as a person or what the different what my different vaccines are but also um where to get that information and I think the third thing I know there are people who concerned about what if I don't respond to vaccines now the two mRNA vaccines and I think uh as I said the novaris vaccine work fairly well but we also are really thinking about the Pema that mentioned it's a pre-exposure prophylaxes the earlier version of it was called eell people may have heard of that it was for those who are severely immunosuppressed don't mount a good response and this was an option to sort of protect them and that version didn't really work against the strains that are in circulation right now so Pema is one that has more uh more recent FDA approval so um hopefully again I think the CDC website has information and also has information on some access uh the ability to access some of these options so there are the vaccines and the immunizations which are the the monoclonals so I'll speak of that for covid and um specific to co and open it up to others if they want to talk about flu or RSV and actually Dr Barnes before we move on because I would love the other panels to jump in you mentioned the C CDC dashboards uh can you point uh explain what we're talking about obviously the campaign is all driven by data the reason we're doing these respiratory illnesses at this time of the year is this is the data shows us that we're seeing more Hospital admissions at this time with seniors and folks who are imuno compromised can you talk about the the respiratory data channels that might be available and where folks can find out more information yes so idph has a respiratory uh dashboard I will put the links for both of these in the chat and uh including cdc's uh respiratory illness dashboard we also um put out periodically uh press release about the state of respiratory viral infections in in Illinois uh CD pH I know Dr slota would speak to it more also puts out weekly respiratory virus uh uh seasonal releases to just make people aware of what's going on right now so there is the IDPA seasonal respiratory dashboard you can just Google it it'll pop up but I'll put the link in the chat and CDC has something specifically called the respiratory data Channel and I'll put the link to that um and you can get county level information and we consider those the source of Truth you know coming from the hospital setting that is where all the information is stored and that's where we go to observe the trends over time as well so that's a great great resource and and Karen uh just to follow up on on what you just said can you talk a little bit about the interactions you've had in the hospital setting with patients who come in um Dr Barnes was bringing up the fact that um the data has to be transparent and easily understood and and we've tried to put that data out there in format so folks have questions on this call or maybe after after this meeting and they want to follow up there's updated current data showing transmission Trends can you talk a little bit about those conversations you've had when patients have come in at Northwestern sure we definitely look at the trends and that guides our practice and our communication with our providers in terms of we know that the Mandate for healthcare providers is not in place to wear masks particularly at our organization however we are encouraging patients if they're coming in symptomatic to wear masks and provide those at the at the point of care but is also want to encourage patients that if you don't feel comfortable and your healthc care provider is not wearing a mask or even the check-in folks absolutely bring that up and we have those conversations that patients might come up and ask us to mask and that's okay and go ahead and put your mask on to make the patients feel comfortable and protect them as well if they you we don't know just by looking at someone they're either imun IM imuno compromised and might need a opportunity for the provider might be more comfortable for the provider wearing masks so I would definitely encourage the public to request individuals to wear masks we have signage about that you know we have a right to ask us to wear masks and just open that dialogue with uh with patients and feel very comfortable about doing that thank you and and thanks for bringing up because that addresses a couple of questions we've got here uh with folks that have talked about mask requirements in hospital settings in their private exam rooms with providers um how do I have that conversation what's some of the scripting that I can have so that when I'm in a private exam room with my doctor or nurse how do I bring that up I'm I'm glad you fronted that to say you have to have that direct conversation um one of the questions we got and this is I guess back to Dr Barnes or um Dr soloda or anyone who wants to answer where can we get Prim uh uh Prim Garda and is it uh no novaris or Novac or are they the same so I I'll put that up for folks and it's no more Sor it's the parent company novax is the name of the vaccine and I just put a locator for PM Garda in the chat there are very few sites where the infusion centers are available on this locator listed fantastic we'll make that that gets put in the uh in the public stream here as well um um if we could Circle back here and talk about some of our higher risk populations um circling back who are the higher risk populations and and I I'll put this out to Dr midus um how do we uh keep those in our Forefront so that we remember when we walk into a room that not everybody has the same immune system and comes to the room with the same um health system or public health um and then also if we could talk a little bit about uh caregivers um either in a child care setting an elder care setting any kind of caregiver uh who are often close to high-risk individual um Dr midus sure thank you um so you know again kind of as we started uh the very young uh and the Very Old um are are kind of the first two groups that that I would think about um and apart from that um a lot of the populations that we've mentioned right the imuno compromise so folks on active cancer treatment if maybe they've had an organ transplant and they're on immunosuppression um and we also tend to see worse outcomes with folks with other comorbidities more medical things uh diabetes obesity lung disease um you know COPD asthma those types of things um so something just to kind of be mindful of where it doesn't have to require you know full-on active cancer treatment to to maybe be a little more thoughtful um about exposures and and risk um and then in terms of caregivers again you know if you're in in a congregate setting um if you are you know working with the very young or the very old as a caregiver right that's again you know if if possible you should consider vaccination um possibly masking especially if you aren't feeling well and you're the only um you know person available to to care for for the the patient thank you I'm just want to take a moment to make sure I'm reading um oh testing um I don't know if one of our panelists wants to speak about accessing testing um obviously HHS has reopened the uh mail order opport to get covid tests mailed to your to your home for test uh at a time mailed um to your home but um can we talk a little bit about testing um for um any of these viruses that we're talking about start um and then I think uh hand it over to dxa for some of the cdpa specific resources but um you know there is also something called the IAT testing locator where the federal government had actually uh supported pharmacies and uh individual sites to provide free covid testing so I actually took advantage also of the federal uh free covid uh tests and and got myself a couple but um the icat testing sites at least as far as the current support is concerned is they're still active hopefully for the next few months they will remain active and I'll I'll put a link to one of those IAT K site so you could find out way you can get free testing but um I we have also kokami Health which is also a great partner for a lot of testing work that happens here Dr yeah I think yeah the the federal government the at home tests that you can order is a great resource uh point of care covid-19 uh tests are still uh widely available at pharmacies as well um usually it's more of the covid-19 v um tests that are available to do at home there's also obviously tests for flu and RSV usually those are performed in a healthc care setting a lot of times they're performed as like a like a triple test you get your it has both it's like one swab B test for covid flu RSV um those are done a lot of times um in like Primary Care settings or emergency departments as well um but a lot of it has to do with how you're feeling if you're feeling really severe to the point where where you need to go see a physician or a provider or need to go to the emergency department that's kind of the most um important component of it and then that's where they perform the test to see which which of these viruses if any or it's something else causing these symptoms um so of of that aspect it's really the severity of symptoms uh during this time of year if you're feeling just like some sniffles and stuff it's not necessarily super important that you get tested it's more so staying like we've talked about before staying home from work from school um making sure you're not going to those places if you feel sick and getting other people sick um is kind of a big part of it right thank you uh more questions coming in um are the flu and the co covid-19 vaccines a good match to what's circulating in the community right now uh I will have Dr midus take a First Step at responding to that sure I think I would defer to my public health colleages a little more but um I think by and large yes uh as Dr sloba said um the covid-19 um vaccine has really tried to follow the evolution of of what we've seen with the virus so um the covid-19 absolutely um and I know flu can be hit or miss sometimes year-over-year but it still offers some um protection no matter what and this year I think has been a pretty close match but again I would defer to our our dph colleagues and I'll only add that yet they they r the flu strain this year so they actually look at what's happening in the southern hemisphere they have winter first they we see what's going on there they tweak The Strain and again you know as Dr mikad said said sometimes it's um a hit or a Miss we'll probably know when flu season Peaks we haven't seen a peak yet but it's also thankfully been milder uh in general and so that's also reassuring to us um as far as you know not seeing a lot of severe illness from flu which is really what the vaccine is designed to do and I think one thing there are so many benefits to vaccination Beyond just protecting from um communicable diseases so specifically the flu flu vaccines have been known to protect or improve your risk from heart attacks and stroke so that's large population level data so I I wish more people were comfortable getting the flu vaccine I got mine this year again you know try to promote it to a lot of people but there are benefits Beyond just targeting just this one specific strain that might be in circulating each year in circulation each year and a question for that's not in the chat but I thought might folks might want to know because you mentioned your experience and I've been vaccinated as well can you receive one or multiple of these vaccinations at the same time uh I could take that one so yes we actually really encourage particularly getting the updated Co and flu vaccine together uh because both of them might make make you feel a little under the weather for like less than a day some muscle soreness in the arm where you get the injection um so yeah it's what we do in all of our clinics is offer it at the same time maybe someone already got one and just needs the other uh but yes very safe and effective to do both of the the updated covid and flu vaccine at the same time great um how late is um as I mentioned we're into December here how late is too late um to get vaccinated and and to have the vaccinations be helpful in reducing the risk how late into the season can we go uh I can take that one so obviously we always want people to get it as soon as it comes out really so but um now is a perfect time to still get it it does take a couple weeks for the vaccine to work and create that immunity to give you the full protection um but but yeah you can still get it now um you can still get it throughout kind of what we call the viral respiratory season into like March April May uh but as always we always encourage to get it uh early on this season so it can kind of give you good protection throughout the season so uh but right now is great time to get the covid INF flu vaccine and the RSV vaccine if you're eligible for it uh particularly going into a lot of different holidays in the next month or two uh where we're doing a lot more activities and uh getting together with people uh just to give us some more protection and peace of mind that's great any panelists want to jump in onto the seasonality of it it's not too late folks you haven't gotten back go in exactly what drod said but I think um one thing to remember some highrisk populations like pregnant women can get their flu vaccine a little early like you know can you know as soon as it's even out um and covid is not as has not been as um has had as deep of a depth during the summer as we often hope so there are uh recommendations often that come out for special highrisk populations to get an additional dose especially for covid vaccine flu has been fairly traditional and at least the last season RSV has been fairly traditional so you may have heard at least for the infants and for pregnant people um RSV vaccine is you know January September to January for pregnant women and from October to March for the babies that are born in that time frame um so different uh you might have a provider that might be able to provide medical justification for a later vaccine but sometimes I think that becomes harder from an insurance standpoint uh and there are some access implications past those period that's great we've been talking about uh uh Co covid-19 in flue um so let's talk about RSV for a minute we've gotten a couple of questions about the RSV vaccine um RSV vaccine is a newer vaccine many people probably have questions about this illness and how vaccines can help protect people can you talk more about what RSV is and who's most at risk yeah I can uh start with that so RSV is uh a viral infection that impacts your respiratory track um is a very very common virus it's been around for a long time I think it's just getting after we've had flu for a long time we had covid now there's more attention to RSV uh but it's a very common virus uh most people will get it if they're yawn and healthy and it'll just give them the sniffles it'll give them the common head cold the CDC estimates that literally every child in America will have an RSV infection by the age of two so it's just something that's always going around um what we're concerned about is people like we talked about on the a um kind of opposite ends of the age Spectrum so older adults and very young infants are the ones that uh are at risk for the the severe illness um and so for older adults particularly those 160 and older there are that's a high risk group they can have maybe worse um symptoms and outcomes that's the group that it may impact their lungs not just like their nose and their throat and a cough and things like that but it might make them hard to breathe um might give them um other bad bacterial lung infections on top of it so these that's a group that often ends up hospitalized from RSV so that's why there's a vaccine for them to prevent that so there's two kind of groups there's 60 to 75 and they can uh get the vaccine if they have certain medical conditions like heart conditions lung conditions imuno compromis or if they live in like a congregate setting like a nursing home um or anybody anybody 75 and older can get to the RSV vaccine as well um currently it's just a onetime vaccine you don't need to get it every season they're doing obviously studying it as they go along uh to see if maybe you need boosters or repeated vaccine or something like that but right now if you got it last season you're so good you don't need to get another uh dose of that so there's two of those there's a and a brisbo um the other group um is pregnant people and infants and so um there's a vaccine for pregnant people and the point of the vaccine is to protect the infant once it is born so a pregnant person can get the abiso vaccine 32 to 36 weeks of pregnancy and then that vaccine will cause an immune response and then antibodies will pass to the infant uh during the pregnancy uh and so once the baby is born it already has the the protection and the antibodies from the mother to protect them from RSV in the event that the mother did not get that AB brisbo vaccine during pregnancy that's when they need something called Nur caab uh which is kind of new um but all these all these vaccines immunizations are new in the last couple of years and they're we're really excited about them because RSV really impacts these populations um so they can get the nureva m and it's literally antibodies monoclonal antibodies it's not a vaccine um so especially when you're really young you're just born your immune system is not fully working yet it takes time to develop and so instead of giving a vaccine that uh causes the body to make antibodies we literally just do an injection of the antibodies to immediately provide protection to the infant after they're born um and so RSV um has a huge impact on uh infants in the Healthcare System it's the number one cause of pediatric hospitalizations uh for those under one years of age is RSV uh so it has a big impact and many people are impacted many healthc Care Systems are impacted by this I work as an emergency medicine physician during bad RSV system uh Seasons all the Pediatric icus in the city are full sometimes all them in the state are full it's um and it's also a really scary disease when they're really young it can look like a really really bad asthma attack um they're wheezing really bad they're struggling to breathe um so that's why we want to prevent this obviously if they get to a hospital we are really good at treating RSV um and infants and uh giving them oxygen and help breathing um but based on last uh season uh looking at the data so far it looks like this Nur man these antibodies are 90% effective in preventing hospitalization which is outstanding because it's such it's a very scary illness has a big impact on a Health Care system so if there is something that could that's 90% effective in preventing that that's that's great um so yeah um if the if they need to get the antibodies that Nur 7ab it's best to do it as soon as possible after birth so that's why in Chicago we're working with Health Care Systems and birthing hospitals try to get it um administered right after birth so they don't have to worry about it anymore they got that protection going for the first couple weeks of life um but they can get it up until a week into life uh that that nureva maab um but for whatever reason if they miss getting it in the first week of life or they were born before RSV season in the spring or summer you can get it up until eight months of age um so this is a really important discussion to have either if you're pregnant and during pregnancy are you going to do the vaccine are you going to do the the antibodies uh once the inant is born um or if you if you just happen not to get it um following up with your your pediatrician or provider uh to make sure to get that protection for your infant particularly in that first six months of Life uh it can be can be really dangerous for them to get RSV thank you Dr saoto um we were just talking about the conversations that uh that patients have with their providers but we also have conversations with our own family and friends so some of the question that have come in the chat here have dealt with that how do I have these conversations so I guess um I'll put it to to Dr or to Karen pulski uh what can I tell my friends and family who might be concerned uh about safety based on misinformation and what resources are publicly available that I can direct them to for more information on vaccines that's a great question I think um providing the information so folks you know sharing your your thoughts and your ideas about vaccination the things that you've heard but also the concrete information that is available and there are some great resources on the HHS website available about the misinformation Mis things that people might theories and thoughts that people might have but actual information to come armed with and you know it's a difficult discussion whether or not you want to put yourself in your in activities with this individual right so I think especially around the holidays there's a way to provide the information up ahead if somebody's completely resistant I mean it's a decision you're going to have to make whether or not you want to to hang with them right it's kind of opportunity out there so I think the conversation twofold one coming with information how you feel personally as well as information that's um available concrete scientific information with with rules and or guidelines around that and I think that would be helpful R carbon you're on mute sorry um this is a common question we're getting in in the Q&A here is um how can I have resources available to me uh to have these intelligent conversations not just with people in my life but maybe with my provider my pediatrician uh the fqc that I'm uh go to for my health care so um I guess Dr midus um Co county has a very large diverse healthc care system uh what some of the different ways that that and resources that are available uh for patients to get this information and uh in the Cook County system what are some ways that you're uh encouraging uh vaccine information absolutely so we have the websites um that um I mentioned already right boost up cook county.com um we also have uh printed media uh in our clinics um and obviously lots of conversations and training with our our clinical staff um and you know again right I think um Karen touch on there's a lot of um online media that that is very helpful CDC HHS your local Health Department they all have resources that um will kind of set the record straight in terms of misinformation um and Beyond I think just kind of that safety misinformation I I think there's also kind of misunderstanding too that we've seen for example um you know folks may think well I got the flu shot last year I don't need it again this year type of thing right but they you know there's that just a little bit more of that deeper understanding that you know it changes every year it's more effective if you're current on the right you got to keep up with the um with the new versions right so so beyond just kind of that broader misinformation again making sure that the more basics in terms of understanding you know why the Cadence and all of that and that you know once a couple years ago isn't good enough so thank you well I want to give each of our panelists time for um for a wrapup comment if there's a point that they'd like to reemphasize or if there's a point that has been made uh Dr Barnes I'll start with you if there's any wrapup comments you'd like to make not care just want to say again thank you for those who took the time to attend today and um what you know just an important reminder that vaccinations do work and but there's so much more out there including knowing where to find information where to get tested where to get treated how to protect yourself and your loved ones masks hand hygiene um and you know staying home if you're or staying at least away enough from others when you are sick with something so uh it's every day we have so many Tools in our arsenal we owe it to ourselves and our communities to just be able to use all of them so thank you again for your time today appreciate it thank you Dr Burns Dr solot yeah thank you for having me um and yeah we just want everybody to uh feel safe and protected uh this winter viral respiratory season so big part of that is these uh updated vaccines to cover for the circulating uh flu and covid viruses so we just strongly encourage for everyone to consider getting these um and it just makes life a lot easier gives you that protection so you have less to worry about um much less likely to get sick or very sick from Co and flu and also less likely to get others sick um but also just yeah practicing other good um practices to prevent uh the spreading of viruses but we really just want everybody to uh have a healthy um winter season so that they can enjoy uh being with their their family their loved ones uh being able to go to work and school and things like that so uh thanks for having us thanks Dr uh Karen great some great great comments already I just want to reiterate just the information that is available from CDC Health and Human Services for resources Fally qualified Health Centers just are ready and at the waiting for those that are uninsured provide the the resources available for that and there's some great comments and questions and taking back and things um G gave me pause to actually think about personally as a provider so I want to thank those that took the time to to um share the information specifically about the masking and asking other individuals to mask up and how we have those conversations so thank you very much for sharing those those comments and questions thank you and again shout out to everyone who uh took a time to put a question in the Q&A uh I've tried to do my best as I can to consolidate those and get those as to panels so thank you for sharing uh and Dr Midas for the closing words all right thank you so much so again thank you for hosting um the event and thanks to everybody for joining um as everyone has said right if you can get vaccinated get vaccinated the sooner the better right um it takes a little bit to to kind of gain that immunity um so you want to do it sooner rather than later um we're heading into much colder weather um most like and the holidays with additional exposures um and as everyone else said mask hand hygiene if you are feeling sick um you know sit this one out maybe um and uh for those in Cook County just one more time I want to plug if you need um a vaccine uh and are interested in an appointment it's 3128640200 um or if you want to engage through ARA County Department of Public Health um that is boostup county.com thank you thank you you all um so many thanks to everybody who joined our discussion today I'd like to especially thank each of our panelists Karen and Dr slod Barnes and midus for participating and sharing your your perspectives and for our attendees we encourage you to tap into the resources offered by HHS via the riskless do more campaign at riskless do more. hhs.gov we'll follow up with all of those who registered with the links to resources that were shared in the chat box during the conversation thank you again for your time today and I'm wishing everybody a safe and healthy mentor