If you are healthy at this moment, count your lucky stars (and be thankful for whatever vaccines you’ve received). Because chances are, if you’re out and about, and especially if you’ve spent time with children, you’ve likely been exposed to, or infected with, one of several ailments sweeping the country: could be just a common cold, or perhaps you’ve been exposed to RSV, or maybe you’ve even been infected with influenza. Finally, Covid-19 is still around- and despite available boosters (which too few of us are getting), infections are surging in some areas and new variants are arising that may be capable of evading our current vaccines. Welcome to the Fall of 2022!

First, the common cold. With handwashing diminished, masks off, and distancing evaporated, it’s likely you’ll acquire the common cold sometime this season. Apparently, the average adult has more than 150 colds throughout his/her life, and there are at least 8 different types of viruses that cause common cold features, with the Rhinovirus causing 30-50% of all colds. There’s no vaccine at present that immunizes you against the common cold and antibiotics are not effective. There are some home remedies to try but it’s likely you have to just grin and bear the coughing and congestion while hopefully limiting the spread through lots of handwashing and masking. To find out more, take a look at this Ted Talk video explanation.

This year you’re likely hearing a lot about RSV, which in some communities is rampant among younger kids and even landing substantial numbers of children in the hospital with serious respiratory ailments. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common respiratory virus that can be harmful to young children and older adults. While it usually shows up mid-winter, this year, due to pandemic disruptions, it is around earlier and finding more people (especially children) who are susceptible, especially after 2 years of little exposure due to Covid restrictions. According to the CDC, 177,000 older adults are hospitalized each year due to RSV, and 14,000 deaths per year among older adults are attributable to RSV. It’s a highly contagious virus (as the increasing numbers of the afflicted demonstrate) and it can lead to pneumonia or other respiratory ailments. If you have asthma, COPD, or a weakened immune system, you are at higher risk for serious illness with RSV. Fortunately, pharmaceutical companies are far along in their efforts to develop an RSV vaccine for older adults so that by next year, you may just need to add an RSV vaccination to your list of Fall chores. To find out more, grab the sanitizer and click here.

Hopefully, by now you’ve gotten your flu vaccine for this year (as well as your Bivalent Covid Booster), as the flu vaccine is your best shot (pun intended) for steering clear of the flu. As you may have heard, the flu has arrived early in the United States this fall, especially in the South. So far, the CDC reports over 800,000 cases of the flu this season, with almost 7,000 hospitalizations, and it’s only early November. With estimates of only 21% of us having received our flu shot so far, the data bodes poorly for getting a handle on this surge of flu cases. In fact, to date, this has been called the worst flu season in 13 years. If you’ve been exposed to someone with the flu, you’re likely to feel sick yourself between 1-4 days after exposure and you yourself are infectious for 3-4 days after becoming ill. There are antivirals you can take if you’ve been exposed, to tamp down serious illness and of course, beyond getting your vaccine, you should take such precautions as handwashing, surface disinfecting, and masking. Since people over 65 account for 50-70% of flu-related hospitalizations, and for 70-90% of flu-related deaths, this is no minor matter. To find out more about how to protect yourself and respond once you’ve been infected, grab your thermometer and click here. And if you’re planning to get together with older adults or immune-compromised adults for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, do yourself (and them) a favor and get vaccinated and/or boosted for both flu and Covid now.