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Vaccines: There’s More to It Than Just COVID

Although COVID-19 has captured so much of the attention about vaccination during the last two years, more long-established and routine immunizations are still an essential part of everybody’s preventive care and public health.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). This annual observance highlights the importance of recommended vaccines throughout your life. We know the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all aspects of life, including your ability to attend important appointments and receive routine vaccinations. During NIAM, we encourage you to talk to your doctor, nurse or healthcare provider to protect you and your family against serious diseases by getting caught up on routine vaccination.

As your children head back to school this fall, it’s particularly important for you to work with your child’s doctor or nurse to make sure they get caught up on missed well-child visits and recommended vaccines.

Remember to take care of yourself too! Make sure to catch up on any vaccines you need to stay healthy. Use CDC’s adult vaccine assessment tool to see which vaccines might be right for you.

With the current widespread transmission of the Omicron variants, it is important to stay up to date on your COVID vaccines to prevent serious illness and hospitalization. CDC recommends COVID-19 vaccines for everyone 6 months and older and boosters for everyone 5 years and older, if eligible. Use CDC’s COVID-19 booster tool to learn if and when your child or teen can get boosters to stay up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Adults and children 6 months and older can get other vaccines at the same time as COVID-19 vaccination. Talk with your doctor if you have questions.

You have the power to protect yourself against serious diseases like shingles, pneumonia, and flu. Vaccines aren’t just for kids. Adults may need vaccines to protect against whooping cough, flu, pneumonia, and shingles. Ask your doctor about vaccines you may need for your age, health conditions, job, or lifestyle.

Individuals who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should talk to their prenatal care provider about recommended vaccines. All pregnant people are recommended to get a whooping cough shot (Tdap) during the 27^th through 36^th week of each pregnancy. Getting a Tdap vaccine during pregnancy provides the best protection against whooping cough for you and your baby in the first few months of life, before your baby is old enough to get their own whooping cough shots. A flu vaccine during any trimester of each pregnancy provides the best protection against flu for you, and can also protect your baby for the first several months after birth when they are too young to be vaccinated.

Use CDC’s adult vaccine assessment tool to see which vaccines might be recommended for your age, health conditions, job, or lifestyle. It is especially important for patients with certain health conditions to be up to date on recommended vaccinations, since they are at increased risk for complications from certain vaccine-preventable diseases. While many serious diseases are no longer common in the United States thanks to vaccines, these diseases still exist and can spread when people aren’t vaccinated. Recently, polio was discovered in wastewater testing in the northeast and at least one unvaccinated individual contracted the nearly-eradicated disease.

Even if you received the vaccines you needed as a child, the protection from some vaccines can wear off. You may also be at risk for other diseases due to your job, lifestyle, travel, or health conditions. Discuss with your doctor to determine what vaccines you may need based on your specific risk factors.

Every year, thousands of children and adults in the United States become seriously ill and are hospitalized because of diseases that vaccines can help prevent. By getting vaccinated, you can help protect yourself and your family from serious, sometimes deadly, diseases.

About Allie Vossoughi
Allie is a Senior Marketing Communication Specialist for AP Keenan who assists with proposal writing as well as authoring and distributing information relevant to AP Keenan clients.