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This is a question we’ve gotten a lot this month amid so many measles outbreaks in the U.S. It can be tricky to find your own vaccination records, but with measles, there’s some good news. Measles vaccines have been around since the 60s. All 50 states require measles vaccination for childcare or school and have for many years. So you most likely got the measles or MMR vaccine as a child unless you are over 65, come from a family that likely didn’t participate in routine childhood vaccinations for religious or personal objections, or you grew up outside the U.S. Even for those over 65, it’s likely that you got the measles shot at some point in your life. If you’re not sure, start by looking for any childhood documents or ask your doctor, parents, or caregivers. Check with previous institutions like high school, college, or military. Some states have registries, though they may not cover vaccines from many years ago. There’s a blood test that a doctor can do to see if you’re immune, but it can cost money and require multiple visits. There’s no harm in getting an extra dose of the MMR vaccine if you aren’t sure, so talk to your doctor, and they may recommend you get vaccinated now. Measles is unbelievably contagious and can be deadly, so it’s a great idea to make sure you’re protected as cases rise.
Sources: Immunize.org, CDC
Both Oregon and California have chosen to drastically relax their COVID isolation guidelines in a major break from the CDC’s recommendations. Both states no longer have a set number of days that people should isolate and allow symptomatic people to leave isolation (and return to work) as soon as they’re fever-free for 24 hours. Even further, they allow people who test positive but don’t have any symptoms to work with a mask without any isolation period at all. If you operate in CA or OR, we definitely recommend that you check out the Best Read below by Dr. Jeremy Faust, explaining why he thinks this misses the mark. To sum it up, people without symptoms are generally less infectious overall than people with fever, but that’s only true for people who never have symptoms, not for people who just haven’t developed symptoms yet. The main concern he raises is that someone might have a house full of sick people, test positive, and come to work, even though 48 hours later, they might be quite sick. In that case, they came to work at the height of their infectiousness, and you might have an outbreak on your hands. Most of our clients that we’ve spoken with about this issue are continuing to follow CDC guidelines for the time being and keeping a close eye on how this plays out.
Sources: Inside Medicine, Oregon.gov, CDPH
Long COVID is still affecting a huge number of Americans. The number of new cases is thankfully declining, probably because fewer people are getting severely ill with COVID. But there are still a huge number of people who are suffering from a wide variety of symptoms. Long COVID is an umbrella term used to describe a number of different things happening in the body after a COVID infection, but many are linked to immune dysregulation. Symptoms can be debilitating; long COVID is recognized as a disease that can cause disability in the ADA. They commonly include extreme fatigue but also respiratory, GI, heart, and neurological issues. That costs businesses and the US government; the NIH estimates that it could be as much as $50 billion per year in missed work alone. Even though new long COVID cases are decreasing, there are still millions of people in the US affected, and their insurance costs are rising. We think the important message that isn’t very well known is that vaccination works to reduce the risk of long COVID. Other than just not getting COVID at all, vaccination is the best way to prevent getting long COVID. So, there’s a business case to promote COVID vaccination among your amenable employees (consider focusing on those who do get the annual flu shot but have skipped the updated COVID shots) to reduce your organization’s long COVID costs.
Sources: CDC, YLE, Ground Truths, Journal of Global Health