Rob Stein
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
So the CDC is urging anyone who hasn't gotten their flu shot to get one as soon as possible, especially with the holidays coming up.
New York, Louisiana and Colorado are already getting slammed by the flu and flu activity is increasing throughout the country.
may be in for another bad flu season.
Part of the reason is that the dominant flu strain recently mutated.
The mutated virus doesn't appear to make people sicker, but it does appear to spread more easily.
That means more people could get sick and get seriously ill.
So the CDC is urging anyone who hasn't gotten their flu shot to get one as soon as possible, especially with the holidays coming up.
The CDC found that COVID vaccines given last fall cut the risk that kids would end up in the emergency room or an urgent care clinic by between 56 and 76 percent up to six months after vaccination.
The findings reinforce the value of vaccinating children against COVID, even though they don't tend to get as sick as adults.
The results were published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
They come as the Trump administration has downplayed the need for vaccination and made it harder for people to get the COVID shots.
Most parents have long stopped vaccinating their children against COVID.
The committee voted to only urge that babies born to women who test positive for the virus get vaccinated at birth.
Those who test negative or whose status is unknown would be counseled to talk to their doctors about waiting until their kids are at least two months old.
The new recommendations would also urge parents to talk to their doctors about testing their kids first before necessarily getting the second and third doses that are usually given for full protection.
This committee was put together by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long questioned many vaccines and has launched a major review of all childhood vaccinations.