Husband-and-wife Eileen Dooley and Denis Woods, of Shepherdstown, are given flu shots by pharmacist Sarah Knipe and her boss, Shepherdstown Pharmacy owner Kris Knott, at St. Agnes Catholic Church in October 2021. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — With the approach of winter, Jefferson County Health Department Health Officer, Dr. Terrence Reidy, recently shared his concerns over how local residents are preparing for potential health concerns.

At the Corporation of Shepherdstown town council’s monthly meeting last Tuesday night, Reidy specifically noted that respiratory virus cases are about to see a rapid increase in the coming months.

“Over the last four years, we have pretty much talked about only one [respiratory virus], and that was COVID,” Reidy said. “This December will be four years since China first started having this virus and, of course, it happened here in Shepherdstown two months later, when we had the first West Virginia case.

“If you look at the charts now, that show how many cases [there are], they’re quite incorrect, because they compare the first two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when all the cases that were being confirmed were by laboratory or doctors office tests that were reported to the state lab. But, for almost two years now, we have been doing home tests — that started in January two years ago,” Reidy said. “Since that time, the numbers have been dramatically lower. For a while, there were fewer cases, but I think as all of you know — not from looking at the internet — but from talking to your friends here about who’s not at this event or that event, there’s plenty of COVID going around.”

Reidy warned that the common comparison of COVID-19 to influenza is inaccurate, especially in the way that it spreads.

“People say, ‘Oh, it’s seasonal!’ Well, there may be a seasonal component [to its spread], but it’s certainly not solely spreading during the season of winter, like the flu,” Reidy said. “COVID is all year round. The good thing is, that not many people end up in the hospital because of it. There are some people who end up in the hospital with it, because they broke their hip and when they tested them, they happen to have COVID. This is just like what would happen if you go into a store and test 40 people — you’ll get a couple confirmations of COVID. If you go to the airline, you’re definitely going to get exposed.”

For those with health risks, such as being 65-or-older or having a weak immune system, Reidy encouraged them to get the COVID-19 booster shot, as well as vaccinations for the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

“The older you are, the older your immune system is and it’s just not what it used to be, so it may be beneficial to get a COVID booster. For infants, parents should talk with their practitioners for advice, because infants may not have been exposed to any COVID yet, and so their infection may be just as severe [as the infections were in 2020],” Reidy said. “For those who have immune system problems or serious illnesses, they should consider also getting the booster.”

While cases of the flu and RSV have been at an all-time-low, thanks to the help of social distancing and mask wearing over the last few years, Reidy warned that, now that most people have returned to living the way they did before the pandemic, cases will be back on the rise this winter.

“For the last two years, we’ve popped back up on our RSV [infections] and it’s settling back into the usual seasonal pattern, along with the flu,” Reidy said. “We used to think of RSV as something that just affected babies — babies can get it and can die from it. It is recommended that babies, during RSV season, get monochronal antibodies — not quite vaccines, because they won’t respond [to them] when they’re under a year old. That’s usually given by their pediatrician.”

In contrast, Reidy said RSV vaccines for at-risk adults are available at most drug stores, just like the flu shot and COVID booster shot.

“For years, we’ve always known that some people end up in the hospital with viruses that we can’t identify. Well, the technology’s gotten commonplace enough, that now when they test for the flu, they also test for RSV. A lot of RSV shows up in older people,” Reidy said. “This year, there are two different vaccines for RSV for those over 65 and especially those who have lung problems, who tend to get sick when they get bronchitis. It probably decreases the incidences of more severe episodes by more than half — maybe two-thirds or more — so it’s valuable for those people to get.

“The influenza vaccine I recommend — most doctors do. Like the COVID vaccines, it can cut the instance of severe illness and death by at least half, especially in the older age group,” Reidy said. “You may say, ‘That’s not much,’ but that is 40,000-50,000 deaths a year!”