Your Vaccine Guide: How to Stay Healthy This Respiratory Viral Season

How to Stay Healthy This Respiratory Viral Season

The weather’s getting chilly, the leaves are changing, football’s on the TV, and the kids are back at school – that means fall is here. It also means it’s time to get your annual shots.

Whether it’s COVID-19 or the flu, the cold New England weather can be a breeding ground for viral infections, so it’s important you’re getting your vaccines to keep you – and everyone around you – safe.

Flu season is coming

Flu strains generally change each season, and every year brings its own set of conditions. This year’s vaccine targets three different strains of the virus, including H1N1 and H3N2.

Who should get the flu vaccine?

The short answer is everyone (at least everyone older than six months). Even if you’re healthy and fit, some may still get a bad infection, and the vaccine is the best way to protect people who aren’t as healthy. In fact, some people have little or no symptoms and can still transmit the virus to others without knowing it, so it’s important to get vaccinated for everyone around you.

If you’re doing any traveling the next few months, get your flu shot as soon as possible – it takes about two weeks to be fully effective. Whether at the airport or the theme park, you’re going to be in contact with tons of different people, and that means you’re much more likely to get sick.

Another year, another COVID variant

You probably know someone who’s gotten COVID-19 at some point this summer. Starting around May 2024, there was another uptick in infections, and cases continued to increase over the rest of the summer. By early August, the number of new cases was similar to that during the winter. That means it’s especially important you get your annual COVID vaccine as soon as you can.

The most common strains of the virus these days come from what are known as KP.2 and JN.1, which have also caused severe illnesses in those infected, like earlier variants.

Fortunately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new round of vaccines that specifically target these strains and both the KP.2 and JN.1 variants. So, if you’re heading to your nearest pharmacy or health clinic to get your shot, you can rest easy knowing you’ll be well protected from the current strains.

You’re sick – now what?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has relaxed some of its guidelines on isolation and include what to do in the community setting if you have any respiratory viral infection.

If you test positive for COVID-19, you should isolate until your symptoms start to improve. You’re safe to go back outside once it’s been 24 hours since you noticed improvement (and after your fever’s gone without fever-reducing medications, whichever is longer).

Even if you’re feeling better – and even though you don’t need a full-blown isolation period – you should still take precautions for the first five days after getting sick with any respiratory virus. Wearing a mask and social distancing can help limit viruses from spreading.

As always, use your best judgment. Regardless of your symptoms, it’s probably best to avoid large gatherings in enclosed spaces or visits to elderly relatives if you were recently sick with COVID or another respiratory virus.

And make sure you’re wearing a mask, cleaning your hands frequently and getting tested when you have symptoms or an exposure to keep your health in tip-top shape.