Seasonal Change: Safeguard Your Health against COVID-19, Influenza and Pneumonia

From the Greenwich Health Department Dr. Stephanie Paulmeno, DNP, MS, RN, NHA, CPH, CCM, CDP Public Health Promotion Specialist

The cold weather months are just ahead of us, but time remains for people to proactively take steps to safeguard their health as well as that of their loved ones against the coming flu season, the ever-present and mutating COVID-19 pandemic, and also against pneumonia. Many safety measures are the same for all three diseases.

They include:

• Getting vaccinated against influenza, pneumonia and COVID-19

• Staying home and away from others when you are sick

• Using social distancing, good room ventilation, and masking if you are indoors with groups of people, especially if you or they are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated, or if you do not know.

• Using good respiratory etiquette when coughing, sneezing, and blowing your nose, as well as good handwashing and sanitizing practices after each of those functions

It is important to know if you are in a high risk group or have conditions that place you at higher risk than the general population; if you are, this means it is all-the-more important for you to be extra cautious. Certain health conditions like asthma and other respiratory conditions, heart disease, and diabetes can place you at increased risk for influenza and for COVID-19. Pneumonia can be a complication of both, you can catch it from another contaminated person, or a bacterial condition (as opposed to a virus), can also be the culprit. Additional risks include being of increased age especially if you have an underlying health condition, have an autoimmune condition (of which there are many), or are on a medication or treatment protocol that impairs your immune system’s ability to properly and fully function (CDC, 2022). In terms of COVID-19, we learned that people who are Black, Hispanic, or of an indigenous population, those who are overweight or obese, and those who were unvaccinated or under vaccinated were at greater risk for contracting the disease, and at higher risk for becoming seriously ill, requiring hospitalization, ICU care, being ventilated, and dying (CDC).

The CDC, which is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has tracked our flu activity for decades. Based on data collected, they have identified that February is the most frequent month when they see a peak in monitored flu activity, and this is followed by December, January and March. The State of Connecticut also has an active flu surveillance system in place and the Greenwich Dept of Health uses that information to compile data that are used in our town-wide planning. The Greenwich Health Dept also gathers its own data on those who become infected with any reportable disease, which among many others included COVID-19.

The Greenwich Dept of Health is currently holding Influenza and Pneumonia Clinics at Town Hall for those 9 years old and up.

The remaining clinic days will be held for the public on October 20 from 3-6:00pm and October 25 from 11-2:00pm.

People are urged to call the Greenwich Flu Line at 203-622-3774 prior to coming to any clinic to check for possible time or other changes.

The World Health Organization (WHO), Worldometer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and the Greenwich Department of Health also track COVID-19. Connecticut DPH has now switched from a daily to a weekly reporting structure, thus the data collected by this writer for the Director of Health is on that same schedule. The most recent 7-week time period has been isolated out of my data for you to see how our COVID numbers change in the critical areas of positivity ratings, numbers of total and new cases, hospitalizations, and total and new deaths (See Insert 1), and bear in mind that our cases and positivity rates do not reflect our true picture anymore because they only show a fraction of our actual cases.

The Greenwich Department of Health’s Bivalent Moderna Booster Clinics are also in progress now. The first was on October 11 and was booked to capacity. The next one will be held on October 19. People 18 and older can schedule themselves into an available slot.

Registration for the COVID-19 Bivalent Moderna Booster Clinics at the Greenwich Health Department is required by making an appointment through the online VAMS system.

Walk-ins to the COVID-19 Bivalent Booster clinics cannot be accepted. The VAMS system, with the dates of the clinics, can be accessed by clicking on this link and proceeding as a “guest.”

(See the Greenwich Director of Health’s Greenwich Free Press Greenwich Health Dept: Covid-19 Bivalent Moderna Booster Clinics Offered Oct 11, 2022) where there is more detailed background information on COVID-19, the old and new vaccines, those who are eligible, and how to make your VAMS appointment. Only the Moderna Bivalent Booster is being offered at the Greenwich Department of Health Clinic.

As a summary, in order to be eligible for the Bivalent booster one must have had their initial vaccine series of J & J (1-vaccine); or Pfizer or Moderna (2 vaccines); or have had their 1st or 2nd booster of Moderna or Pfizer at least 8-weeks (2 months) prior to receiving this bivalent Moderna booster. The bivalent Booster vaccine cannot be used as your initial vaccine series. You can mix and match your vaccines. For instance, if you had Pfizer as your initial series &/or booster shots, you can get either Moderna or Pfizer as your bivalent booster choice and combine the benefits of both vaccine renditions.

The bivalent vaccine differs from the original vaccines and boosters in that this mRNA vaccine version now targets both the earlier versions of COVID-19 as well as the newer Omicron variations. The original Moderna and Pfizer were also mRNA vaccines. All the original vaccines and boosters only targeted the pre-Omicron strains of COVID-19. This new version targets both the original strains and the newer Omicron strains which did not exist when the earlier versions were created. This is important because the current Omicron variants are much more contagious than were the earlier strains, and newer and even more contagious variants are now being seen, namely the BA.4.6, which Dr. Fauci, the just retired Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said during testimony appears to be even more able to evade immunity that BA.5. He has urged us not to let our guard down (Constantino, 2022). During the winter months we generally see a rise in influenza and during our short history with COVID-19, in that as well.

Information on these COVID-19, influenza, and pneumonia can be accessed for Connecticut and Greenwich by accessing their websites https://www.greenwichct.gov/575/Health-Department and the https://portal.ct.gov/coronavirus and by checking Selectman Camillo’s weekly edition of Community Connections from Fred. This includes current information from the Greenwich Department of Health, Greenwich Hospital, the Connecticut Department of Public Health, which has statewide information as well as filterable information broken down by county and town. On October 14 Selectman Camillo displayed figures showing that 16,058 of our Greenwich friends, neighbors and loved ones have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic began; the vast majority recovered, but many spent time hospitalized, in intensive care in order to receive life-saving treatments, and 127 of them have died.

COVID figures for the last seven weeks

The Connecticut Department of Public Health maintains displays data that shows that in Connecticut we have more people with lab confirmed COVID-19 than we have had since February 2022. As of this past Thursday our state’s COVID-positivity rate was 10.11%; According to the Johns Hopkins experts, it should be under 5% (Dowdy & D’Souza, 2020). It is important to remember that this percentage only takes into account those who are tested in a lab, and not the many that are doing home testing. It also does not take into account those who have all the symptoms yet never test because another (or others in their family) is already a known-positive. Those we know about are only a fraction of our actual cases.

In my role with the Greenwich Department of Health, I track these figures weekly. It used to be daily but the CT-DPH now only reports them once per week. Here are Connecticut’s running totals since September 1 st 2022. Anyone who wishes to do so can click on the link in Insert 1 and confirm the figures for themselves. Professionals in health and public health continue to encourage people to get themselves and their children vaccinated against COVID-19, influenza and pneumonia.

Resources

CDC, (2022). Factors That Affect Your Risk of Getting Very Sick from COVID-19, In CDC/Your
Health. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/risks-getting-very-
sick.html

Constantino, A. K. (2022). Dr. Fauci: A new, more dangerous COVID variant could emerge this
winter. Based on an interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci. Health and Wellness; makeit; CNBC Universal.
Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/dr-fauci-new-more-dangerous-covid-variant-could-
emerge-this-winter.html

Dowdy, D., D’Souza. G., (2020). COVID-19 Testing: Understanding the “Percent Positive”
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Retrieved from https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2020/covid-19-testing-understanding-the-percent-positive