A triple threat from the spread of flu, RSV and COVID poses risks for the state's healthcare system, but medical experts say there are ways to fight back.
"They're all coming at once, so the idea is that the vaccination can help in all of them," Dr. Gailen Marshall, chair of allergy and immunology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said.
Marshall says vaccination against these respiratory illnesses is especially important for protecting the immunocompromised.
"There are more and more people that the COVID pandemic taught us have got compromised immune systems, that are walking around fine if they're not challenged, but they can get sicker," Marshall said.
The rise in these illnesses during the winter is nothing new, but this is the first year in which vaccines against all three are available. The Food and Drug Administration approved the first RSV vaccine earlier this year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the RSV vaccine for adults 60 years of age and older, infants younger than eight months and pregnant people during weeks 32-36 of their pregnancy.
There are also new formulations of the COVID-19 and flu vaccines available. Marshall says the discomfort that can come from getting a vaccine is much preferable to experiencing the illness itself.
"You'll hear people say: 'Well, I never get a flu vaccine because it gives me the flu.' No, it doesn't. ... Let me tell you, you've never really had the full-blown flu if you think the two or three days ‘I don't feel good after a flu vaccine’ is giving you the flu."
Marshall says that while vaccination might not prevent infection, it will radically reduce the chances for a severe case.
