Immunizations help reduce the risk of respiratory viruses by preventing severe illness. Stay up to date with your COVID-19, flu, and RSV vaccines! Please check with your primary healthcare provider or pharmacist for vaccine availability.
Updates:
- The 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines are now available at the Shasta County Public Health Immunization Clinic.
- The Shasta County Public Health Immunization Clinic is a participant of the Bridge Access Program (BAP).
- Flu vaccines are now available at the Shasta County Public Health Immunization Clinic.
- The RSV vaccines for the eligible infant and young children groups are now available through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program at the Shasta County Public Health Immunization Clinic.
- On October 23, 2024, CDC updated COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for people 65 years and older and for people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised.
What Can I Do To Protect Myself And Others?
- Stay up to date with immunizations.
- Practice good hygiene (practices that improve cleanliness: wash and sanitize hands, cover cough/sneeze and cleaning frequently touched surfaces).
- Take steps for cleaner air.
- Mask up for additional protection especially if you belong in the high risk groups or have a loved one that is in the high risk groups.
- Physical Distancing by avoiding being near someone who has respiratory virus symptoms and avoiding crowded areas where you may be unable to maintain physical distance.
- Testing for respiratory viruses can help you decide what to do next, like getting treatment to reduce your risk of severe illness and taking steps to lower your chances of spreading a virus to others.
What Are The Vaccine Recommendations For The 2024-2025 COVID-19 Vaccine?
- Learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and if you are up to date on CDC's Staying Up to Date with COVID-19 Vaccines.
- Everyone ages 6 months and older can get the 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine.
- It is recommended for people who have and haven't received a COVID-19 vaccine before and people who have had COVID-19.
- For people 65 years and older and those who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, can receive a second dose of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine six months after their first dose.
- The CDC offers these clinical timing guides on COVID-19 Vaccine Timing 2024-25 (English Version) & Calendario de la Vacuna COVID-19 2024-25 (Spanish Version) to help with the spacing of vaccine and extra doses, for both routine and immune-compromised recipients, ages 6 months through adult.
What Are The Vaccine Recommendations For The Flu Vaccine?
- Everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine every season with rare exceptions.
- Different influenza vaccines are approved for different age groups.
- For more information on flu vaccine recommendations, visit CDC's Who Needs a Flu Vaccine page.
Which Groups Are Eligible To Get The RSV Vaccine?
- Vaccines are recommended to protect adults aged 60 years and older from severe RSV.
- There are two immunizations recommended to protect infants and young children from severe RSV: a maternal RSV vaccine (Pfizer's ABRYSVO) given during pregnancy or an RSV antibody given to infants after birth.
What Are The Vaccine Recommendations For The RSV Vaccine For Older Adults?
- CDC recommends RSV vaccines for all adults ages 75 years and older, and for adults ages 60–74 years who are at increased risk of severe RSV.
- RSV vaccine is given as a single dose.
- RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine, meaning people do not need to get a dose every RSV season. If you have already received an RSV vaccine, you do not need another dose at this time.
- If you have a moderate or severe illness, you should wait until you recover before receiving an RSV vaccine. If you have a minor illness, such as a cold, you can get an RSV vaccine.
- For more RSV vaccine information for older adults, visit CDC's Vaccines for Adults Ages 60 and Over page.
What Are The Vaccine Recommendations For The RSV Antibody For Infants And Young Children?
- An RSV antibody (nirsevimab) is available for babies and some young children to protect them from severe RSV.
- All infants younger than 8 months of age born during RSV season or entering their first RSV season. Except in rare circumstances, most infants younger than 8 months of age do not need nirsevimab if they were born 14 or more days after their mother got an RSV vaccine.
- Some children ages 8 through 19 months who are at increased risk for severe RSV disease and entering their second RSV season.
- For more information on the RSV vaccine for infants and young children, visit CDC's Immunizations to Protect Infants page.
What Are The Vaccine Recommendations For The Maternal RSV Vaccine?
- People who are 32 through 36 weeks pregnant during September through January should get one dose of maternal RSV vaccine to protect their babies.
- RSV season can vary around the country. If you live in Alaska, Florida, or outside the continental U.S., talk to your healthcare provider about when RSV season is expected where you live.
- When someone gets an RSV vaccine, their body responds by making a protein that protects against the virus that causes RSV. The process takes about 2 weeks.
- When a pregnant person gets an RSV vaccine, their protective proteins (called antibodies) also pass to their baby. So babies who are born at least 2 weeks after their mother gets RSV vaccine are protected at birth, when infants are at the highest risk of severe RSV disease.
- The vaccine can reduce a baby's risk of being hospitalized from RSV by 57% in the first six months after birth.
- For more information on the maternal RSV vaccine, visit CDC's Immunizations to Protect Infants page.
