Testing optimistic for COVID can elevate many questions: When are you able to return to work? Do it’s important to put on a masks? When will your sense of style come again?
And when you’re desirous about getting vaccines this fall, you may additionally marvel in case your optimistic take a look at modifications when you must get your photographs.
After being authorized by the Meals and Drug Administration on the finish of August, the COVID vaccine is now accessible nationwide, as are the flu and RSV vaccines. However with a COVID an infection already throwing your immune system out of whack and offering some immunity from the virus, it’s comprehensible to be confused about the very best timing for getting vaccinated for COVID and different widespread diseases.
Right here’s what to bear in mind when planning out your fall vaccine schedule after a latest COVID an infection, in line with infectious illness medical doctors and a pharmacist.
The U.S. is beginning to see a dip in COVID instances after instances appeared to rise this summer time, however plenty of the virus continues to be circulating. The newest knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention present that greater than 15% of COVID assessments performed by healthcare suppliers got here again optimistic for the virus and that emergency room visits for COVID are up 2% over the earlier week. Sadly, deaths linked to the virus are additionally up 2%.
These instances are being fueled by newer variants of the virus, together with KP.3.1.1, KP.3, and LB.1, in line with CDC knowledge.
“It’s clear we’re nonetheless in a cat and mouse sport towards new variants of COVID-19,” Mark Cameron, PhD, an affiliate professor within the Division of Inhabitants and Quantitative Well being Sciences on the Case Western Reserve College College of Drugs, informed Well being. “I want the booster was rolled out sooner than it has been this yr and final, given the late summer time an infection ranges we’ve seen.”
The CDC recommends not getting any vaccinations when you will have COVID to keep away from exposing others. As for when you must get your COVID vaccine, the official CDC stance is that you just “could” contemplate delaying it for as much as three months after you had been contaminated.
Why wait to get vaccinated? “You’ll doubtless have some residual safety from the latest an infection,” Shobha Swaminathan, MD, a professor within the Division of Infectious Illnesses at Rutgers New Jersey Medical College, informed Well being.
Susan Kline, MD, MPH, a professor of drugs within the Division of Infectious Illnesses and Worldwide Drugs on the College of Minnesota Medical College, informed Well being that the “increase in immunity that individuals get from having a COVID an infection may give them fairly good protecting ranges of antibodies as much as about three months, after which they begin to go down.”
Mainly, it’s possible you’ll not want to get the vaccine proper after a COVID an infection, however that doesn’t imply you can’t, Kline mentioned. “It’s actually not dangerous” to get vaccinated towards COVID quickly after you take a look at optimistic, she defined, so long as you’re feeling higher earlier than getting vaccinated so that you just don’t expertise unwanted side effects that might probably exacerbate your situation.
Kline recommends ready about two weeks from the beginning of your sickness to get any vaccine, supplied you’re feeling again to regular. “It could be okay to get a vaccine after that,” she mentioned.
Should you had been sick this summer time and aren’t positive when you had COVID, it’s in all probability finest to get your COVID vaccine sooner slightly than later, John Sellick, DO, an infectious illness skilled and professor of drugs on the College at Buffalo, informed Well being. “There have been loads of different issues circulating this summer time that might have made you sick,” he identified.
Not likely. Kline mentioned that it “shouldn’t be an issue” to get the flu shot or RSV vaccine, supplied you’re eligible, after a bout of COVID—however once more, so long as it’s been a few weeks since you bought the virus and also you’re feeling higher.
These vaccines goal completely different viruses, which implies that the safety you’d get from having had a COVID an infection gained’t switch to guard you towards them, Sellick mentioned.
Swaminathan recommends that everybody get a flu vaccine, no matter whether or not you’ve had a COVID an infection. “Whereas there is no such thing as a very best time for it, if flu exercise is low in your space, you may delay getting the flu shot til late October or so to make sure that you will have immunity for many of the flu season,” she mentioned.
The RSV vaccine is barely beneficial for adults 75 and older, in addition to these 60 and up who’re at excessive threat for extreme issues from RSV.
“Adults who’ve already acquired the RSV vaccine don’t must get one other dose every RSV season,” Swaminathan mentioned. “Subsequently, this might not be an annual dose.”
Usually talking, most individuals ought to goal to get each the COVID and flu vaccines by the top of October, on condition that consultants count on ranges of the viruses to begin growing within the nation quickly. (You may get each vaccines on the identical time.)
However, in fact, everybody’s wants are completely different. “One caveat of all of those vaccines is that it’s essential to think about any continual circumstances you will have and what number of vaccines it’s possible you’ll want,” Jason Yee, PharmD, a pharmacist at Cedars Sinai Medical Middle in Los Angeles, informed Well being. When you’ve got an underlying well being situation, it could be price checking in along with your main care doctor to see if you’ll want to get your vaccines at a specific time.
Whereas planning out when to get your vaccines is all the time useful, Sellick recommends merely getting them if the chance presents itself. Meaning in case your native pharmacy supplies COVID or flu photographs, go forward and get them. “Folks are likely to neglect about this or make up excuses for why they don’t wish to do it,” Sellick mentioned. “Simply get them when you’ll be able to.”