CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — As cases of COVID, Influenza and RSV rise or remain strong across the country, Cook County Health officials said many people have been seeking out vaccinations against the respiratory illnesses. Nonetheless, officials said they’re still fighting misconceptions and outright falsehoods.
Dr. Sharon Welbel, the director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control for Cook County Health, said even those who come into clinics and request new and current vaccinations sometimes ask whether it’s safe to receive more than one shot at a time or close together.
Her answer: Yes.
“We’ve been doing this for a number of years now, particularly with influenza and the COVID vaccine — since RSV just came out this year, there’s not much data on that — but clearly with influenza and COVID vaccines, we’re giving them together,” she said. “It’s completely safe. There’s even some data to suggest the response is even more robust when they’re given together.”
Welbel is concerned, though, about statements on social media and from some public officials, in which it’s been suggested that the COVID-19 vaccines, developed with newer MRNA technology, could somehow alter someone’s DNA. That, she said, just false.
“5.5 billion around the world have received the vaccine, and we haven’t seen mal-effects of it, and I think now we’re into Year 4,” she said.
Dr. Whitney Lyn, the Lead Attending Physician at Provident Hospital’s Sengstacke Health Center, said the misconceptions haven’t stopped people from flocking to their clinic to get up to date on their vaccines.
That's a change from the first COVID outbreak, Lyn said, when Black and brown communities were hard hit.
“A lot of patients are starting to see [that] this is really important,” Lyn said. “You know, ‘I’ve either received it’ or ‘someone in my family has gotten COVID,’ because at some point it’s going to be inevitable that every person has had COVID once or twice before.”
In addition to the vaccines, many local hospitals have tightened their masking requirements. During the immediate years following the pandemic, requiring masks became a political battle, but Welbel said they’ve seen less resistance now. One reason for that, she said, might be that people saw how effective masks were.
“We clearly see how well it works, because we had almost no influenza during that entire season when everybody was masking, and very low rates of RSV, and so on and so forth.”
She pointed out that Cook County has kept its strict masking requirements for staff — pandemic or not.
Welbel suggested that individuals speak with their trusted medical professionals about all of this.
The return of COVID and much more is the topic on this week’s “At Issue” program, which airs on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.
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