As the new school year begins and cooler temperatures start settling around Connecticut, respiratory virus season is right around the corner. While flu shots will be readily available this fall at clinics, pharmacies and doctor’s offices statewide, there are new rules regarding who can get the updated COVID shot this year – but don’t let that stop you from being protected.
The new COVID shot was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 27 for anyone at or over the age of 65, but for the first time, people under the age of 65 will be restricted from getting it unless they have at least one underlying condition that could make getting COVID higher-risk for them, CNN reported. While this seems limiting, as of 2023, the CDC found that 76.4% of American adults reported having at least one chronic condition and 51.4% had more than one, meaning the majority of Americans remain eligible and recommended to get a shot.
Conditions that can increase risk of a serious bout of COVID, the CDC said, include cancer, stroke, kidney or liver disease, lung diseases including asthma and COPD, cystic fibrosis, dementia, depression and other neurodivergences and mental health conditions, diabetes, disability, heart conditions, blood disorders, being immunocompromised, being overweight or obese, being physically inactive, a history of smoking or substance use disorder, among others.
The changes to vaccine access come from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services, and are the latest this year seeming to cast doubt on vaccines’ efficacy. In May, despite studies showing that COVID can have serious risks during pregnancy and among children, the Centers for Disease Control stopped recommending COVID shots for healthy children or pregnant women.
In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists contrasted the CDC to continue recommending shots for infants and young children and during pregnancy.
RFK cut $500 million of research projects using mRNA vaccine technology, including ones that were finding success in stifling cancer, US News and World Report said. He’s also fired the entire CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and hand-picked prominent vaccine deniers as replacements, ABC News reported.
Despite the confusion these moves have caused, the COVID shot remains a valuable tool in reducing the impacts of a COVID infection. The CDC found that in the fall and winter of 2024-25, the COVID shot reduced risk of emergency department visits among adults by at least one-third and by about 50% for people over the age of 65. Those results were largely on par with the flu shot in 2024-25. In the winter of 2023-24, the COVID shot prevented 68,000 hospitalizations.
As recently as April, the CDC recommended the COVID shot for all ages.
The results of this change in messaging may become apparent in this upcoming fall and winter’s data. CNN said that COVID levels have been rising in most of the country and are about as high now as they were in the summer of 2023. Historically, the virus grows in August and September, when the school year starts, and from November to January, during the holiday season.
