Don’t miss it - TOMORROW!

Wednesday, October 8 | 2:00 PM ET (11:00 AM PT)

Managing workplace outbreaks isn’t what it used to be. Lower vaccine coverage and shifting trust have changed the playbook, and employers need new ways to keep employees and guests safe while avoiding business interruptions.

Hear from Roslyn Stone, MPH and CEO of Zero Hour Health in conversation with Dr. Art Liang, longtime CDC leader, and Courtney Halbrook, Director of Environmental Health & Safety at TopGolf, as they discuss what outbreak response looks like in today’s atmosphere of doubt. As always, we’ll leave plenty of time for your questions!

Register here!

Health News:

• The CDC approved fall COVID shots as recommended by the ACIP, including “individual-based decision making” that recommends consulting a health professional like a pharmacist, nurse, or doctor. (NBC)
  
  
• Some people who have discovered that they received little to no vaccination in childhood are seeking out the shots themselves in adulthood. (Washington Post)
  
  
• USDA issued a public health alert for Listeria-contaminated spinach in certain Hello Fresh meal kits. (USDA)
  
  
• H5N1 is heating up again with Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin reporting new outbreaks on commercial poultry farms. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• Another premature Canadian baby died from measles after the mother contracted the virus, the second this year but the first in Alberta province. (CBC)
  
  
• The federal shutdown is another blow for federal workers, including tens of thousands of employees at HHS who are furloughed or working without pay. (Washington Post)
  
  
• Costco will offer Wegovy and Ozempic for $499 per month to uninsured members. (Hill)
  
  
• The WHO says conditions are ripe for chikugunya to spread. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• Climate pollution from asthma inhalers has the impact of half a million cars per year, a new study found. (CNN)

Best Questions:

Do we need to see a doctor in order to get a fall COVID shot?

No, you don’t need to visit a doctor or get a prescription in order to get a fall COVID shot.

This week the CDC finally approved the recommendations of their vaccine advisory council, the ACIP, after an unexplained delay. While the website with the updated vaccine schedule is delayed, perhaps in part due to the government shutdown, the press release from HHS indicates that they’ve accepted ACIP’s recommendations without further changes.

Anyone aged six months and older can get a COVID shot if they want one, and it will be covered by insurance. However, the CDC changed the vaccine schedule from recommending COVID shots for most adults to individual-based decision making...

What is individual-based decision making?

CDC described individual-based decision making as a conversation with a health professional (doctors, nurses, and pharmacists all count!) to assess the individual risks and benefits of a COVID shot for each person. Unlike in past years, when they emphasized the importance of getting a shot for everyone, the HHS press release really emphasizes that some people are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID, and implies that if you’re not, you may not need a shot.

The deputy secretary said in the official CDC press release that blanket recommendations for annual boosters stopped providers from talking about the risks and benefits for each individual.

Instead, these new guidelines encourage people to discuss their own unique situation with a pharmacist, nurse or doctor before choosing to get a shot.

So what do you actually need in order to get a COVID shot?

In short, we think you don’t need anything other than to walk in or make an appointment at your local pharmacy.

As far as we know, there’s no actual way for the government to enforce that people are using “shared clinical decision-making” to make individual-based decisions about whether or not to get a COVID shot. There’s no prescription or note required.

The CDC has said that pharmacists, nurses and doctors all count as health professionals that you can consult as part of this process, which means that it’s not limited to doctors. That’s important, because nearly 90% of COVID shots last year were given at a pharmacy.

It’s still early days, since the CDC just made this official on Monday, but as far as we can tell, we think that this is primarily going to add confusion for people, but not actually add any requirements.

It’s possible that major pharmacy chains will take actions to ensure they’re doing more risk and benefit discussion with people before giving them the vaccine, but we don’t think that there’s anything that individual people actually need to do in order to qualify for getting their shot.

We will keep an eye on this - and if you go to get your shot and encounter any confusion or issues with getting it at the pharmacy in your state, please let us know so that we can provide updates here.

Sources: CDC, NPR, Washington Post, CDC COVIDVaxView

Best Read:

It’s a bit less health-related than our usual best read but we really loved seeing what it took, start to finish, to follow a rookie restaurateur opening her first restaurant in New York City.

Opening a Restaurant in New York is No Picnic: A year in the making of a rookie's first restaurant - New York Times (Gift Article)

‍