I have never gotten one of these; it seems to me that I didn’t hear about it pre-COVID. Now my medicare account is sending me messages like the one reprinted below.
Does anyone have any perspectives on whether this is worthwhile or not? I am pro-vaccine, but don’t want to go overboard …
Are you protected against flu, COVID-19 and RSV? It’s important to stay up to date on Medicare-covered vaccines. Vaccines can lower your risk of getting really sick, and their side effects are usually mild and temporary.
@bostrav59 My wife and I got the RSV vaccine and didn’t have anything other than a sore arm for a day or so. I’m sure there will be different perspectives on it. I tend to favor listening to the science of it, though in this case, I believe the effectiveness was only noted as about 80% or so and dropped off considerably after 12 most. I’ve now turned 70, the wife hits 65 this year; she has asthma issues and doesn’t need anything else “invading” her lungs, so we thought it better to get it. I understand there is work being done on a combined flu/RSV/Covid shot for the future, hopefully by then the effectiveness can be improved.
My internist recommended that I get it last year, and he said they don’t know yet whether or how often boosters will be needed, so don’t get boosted for RSV until more is known. Not exactly one and done, but only one for the time being.
CDC recommends a single dose of any FDA-licensed RSV vaccine for all adults ages 75 and older and adults ages 60–74 at increased risk of severe RSV.
Three RSV vaccines are currently available for adults ages 60 and older: GSK’s Arexvy, Moderna’s mResvia, and Pfizer’s Abrysvo. Eligible older adults may receive any of the licensed RSV vaccines.
Eligible adults can get an RSV vaccine at any time, but the best time to vaccinate patients is in late summer and early fall before RSV usually starts to spread in the community.
The RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine. People who have already received one dose (including last year) have completed their vaccination and should not receive another dose at this time.
I’m currently a subject in a clinical trial for the Moderna RSV vaccine in Type-1 diabetics. I know I got a vaccination, I just don’t know if it was a high or low dose. One dose. No side effects & no RSV so far.
"The RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine, meaning eligible adults do not need to get a dose every RSV season. Currently, CDC recommends only a single dose of RSV vaccine for all adults ages 75 and older and for adults ages 60–74 with increased risk of severe RSV disease. Additional surveillance and evaluation activities are ongoing to determine whether adults might benefit from receiving additional RSV vaccine doses in the future.
The need for additional RSV vaccine doses will be evaluated by ACIP and CDC in the future; recommendations will be updated as needed."
A couple of things I take away from responses that lead to questions:
Does having a cold or flu weaken your lungs? @TomH said :
I understand this given asthma issues, but it raised a general question about the longer term effects of things like flu. Is it generally accepted that flus weaken your lungs? Because there is the other narrative, ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.’ Maybe I’m being obtuse, so somebody please just confirm the intuition behind Tom’s comment for those with otherwise healthy lungs.
(I say this as someone who is currently slowly recovering from a lingering cold - two weeks of sniffling and cold medications).
The second thing I take away is that, for otherwise healthy diabetics, it doesn’t seem like an important vaccine to take …
I think it’s a matter of catching a respiratory virus gives you a small chance of a bad outcome. So it’s a little safer to prevent the virus than to catch it and get over it. Think back to covid. Most people got well. Some needed hospital support but they got well. Some had a bad outcome like long covid or worse. Anyway, having diabetes supposedly increases the chance of a bad outcome, so that makes it more worthwhile to prevent the infection in the first place.
What doesn’t kill you doesn’t necessarily make you stronger. Damage to joints or ligaments leaves a lingering weakness. Recovering from a cut doesn’t make you more resistant to getting cut in the future, but it doesn’t make you more prone to cuts either, you just heal and it’s over.
@bostrav59 I don’t know if flu weakens the lungs, its a fair question. While I tend to agree with the philosophy of “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” we need to understand the statement was made by someone on this side of the dirt. The thought my wife could end up on the other side of the dirt wasn’t acceptable, so we reached a different conclusion.
It’s one of the common colds. It is endemic and we frequently get infected with it, just another cold. The vaccine is only available to older individuals because most of the time it doesn’t result in death. I got it (the vaccine) despite being a T1D with a still fairly active immune system because I could. My wife couldn’t; despite being a newly diagnosed T2 she couldn’t get it yet as she hadn’t hit 60. (She’s officially 25 next year
I just got it because it was free; no harm. It’s difficult to know whether I’ll see an advantage because I’m rarely exposed to other people. I’m never in close proximity to other people unless I fly. That means I’m rarely exposed to RSV but that might, on the other hand, mean that when I am exposed I’m more at risk simply because I haven’t bought the latest version (kindolike my cellphone.)
Still, no harm, including no cost (a big harm for most people) so, whatever?
