A couple weeks ago I started feeling stuffy and sneezing and my throat felt scratchy. I thought it was probably my normal summer allergies, which have been especially troublesome this year. But then I thought, “What if it’s not?” I had recently been in a few more public situations than usual — potential exposure; and I had some appointments coming up — better not spread it around!

So, I did a COVID test and another a couple days later. Both tests were negative.

That was a relief, not only because I wasn’t sick or infectious, but also because it meant I could go ahead and get the new COVID shot that had just become available. (Waiting 3 months after recovering is recommended.)

COVID-19 is becoming endemic. This means that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is here to stay, continuing to circulate in predictable cycles, still making people sick. We are used to this with influenza, which surges each fall and winter. Each year the Food and Drug Administration approves a new flu vaccine based on the viruses expected to predominate in the coming season. COVID is developing a similar pattern, although it has not settled into an annual pattern. We are just emerging from a summer surge, and a winter outbreak is probable, driven by the return of colder weather that means more people in crowded indoor settings and by how quickly SARS-CoV-2 mutates into new variants.

A new variant, XEC, appeared in Germany in June and spread rapidly in Europe. It’s in half of U.S. states now. Headlines about new variants can be alarming, but the good news is that the newly approved vaccines should be effective against this one.

There’s more good news, too. The summer COVID wave is waning, and levels are currently low in most of the U.S. Thanks to immunity from vaccinations and previous infection, COVID deaths have dropped worldwide. In the United States, COVID was the 3rd leading cause of death in 2021, the 4th leading cause in 2022, and the 10th leading cause last year. That’s progress!

But COVID is still very dangerous. People still die from COVID — 894 a week in the U.S. as of mid-September. People with immune systems weakened by age or compromised by certain medical conditions and treatments are especially vulnerable. And COVID is not “just the flu.” Have you seen the television ad with a wolf in sheep’s fleece stalking the halls of a hospital seductively saying, “I’m just the flu”? It’s an ad for flu vaccines but the message is the same for COVID. The flu kills people every year, and though the gap has narrowed a lot, deaths of hospitalized patients from COVID are still 35% higher than from flu!

This is why the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends the COVID-19 and flu vaccines for everyone 6 months and older. (Getting both at the same time is fine.) Vaccines are available at pharmacies and health centers across the country; as in the past, there are three COVID options: the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines and Novavax. All are effective. Novavax is a good choice for folks who prefer a traditionally produced vaccine; it may have fewer side effects, and protection may last a little longer.

Michael Heyd, a retired medical librarian from Fairfield Township who spent more than forty years searching the literature for professional hospital staff, is a member of Let’s End COVID!, a group of concerned people in Northcentral PA working to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic through education, outreach and mitigation.