It has been an up-and-down year for COVID-19, as the pandemic nears its three-year anniversary.
Beginning in spring 2022, mask requirements and COVID restrictions were lifted in Michigan, as the percentage of people who were vaccinated rose and the number of cases with serious complications fell.
In early September, a new booster became available in Michigan, which experts said would provide better protection from the many COVID variants.
But COVID-weary Michiganders didn’t rush to get the shots.
A post-Thanksgiving uptick in diagnoses was complicated by a surge in severe cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
Experts said that nearly two years of staying home had protected people from COVID, but limited exposure to other infectious diseases, which meant some patients hadn’t built up immunity. That contributed to an unusually high number of cases of flu and RSV requiring hospitalizations, particularly in infants, toddlers and older adults.
Nationally and locally, as people returned to pre-pandemic lives, infants and toddlers were exposed to respiratory illnesses like RSV for the first time.
Under normal conditions, 90% of 2-year-old children have already had RSV, with only cold-like symptoms, or parents being unaware they had it at all, said Dr. Allison Weinmann, infectious disease specialist for Henry Ford Health.
A child who is 2 years old now has lived mostly under COVID-19 restrictions that limited exposure. Even slightly older children have not gone to daycare centers or schools where they could have built up immunity, experts say.
Flu season, which usually peaks in early winter, began in earnest in fall, causing medical experts to fear hospitals could be at or near capacity for several months.
Could it be a difficult winter for COVID-19, too? Some experts say it’s a possibility.
Nationwide, hospital admissions are climbing, with older adults a growing share of U.S. deaths, and less than half of nursing home residents up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the Associated Press.
When it comes to protecting seniors, “we’re doing a terrible job of that in this country,” Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, told the AP.
As nursing home leaders redouble efforts to get booster shots for staff and residents, they face complacency, misinformation and COVID-19 fatigue.
Clear messages about what the vaccine can do — and what it can’t — are needed, said Katie Smith Sloan, president of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes.
Breakthrough infections do not mean the vaccine has failed, she said, but that false perception has been hard to fight.
“We need to change our messaging to be accurate about what it does, which is prevent serious illness and hospitalization and death,” Sloan said. “This virus is insidious, and it just keeps popping up everywhere. We just need to be real about that.”
Easing restrictions, broader immunity in the general population and mixed messages about whether the pandemic is over have softened the threat that younger adults feel. That may be a welcome development for most, but the attitude has seeped into nursing homes as well.
Getting family consent for vaccinating nursing home residents has become more difficult. Some residents who can give their own consent are declining the shots. Only 23% of nursing home staff are up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations.
#Children, #Coverage, #Seniors
Published on The Perfect Enemy at https://bit.ly/3Ga6q9Z.
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