Based on past experience with seasonal colds and flu, public health experts are warning of a possible surge of COVID-19 cases this winter.

That’s, in part, because cold weather forces people indoors where airborne transmission thrives, and the now-dominant BA.5 Omicron variant is known to be highly contagious. So this month the United States endorsed new combination booster shots of both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine formulations. They’re expected to provide increased and longer-lasting protection against the original COVID strain — and critically — against the newer variants.

To discuss:

• Peter Chin-Hong is a professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
• Kate Tulenko is the founder and CEO of Corvus Health.
• Melanie Yazzie is an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. 
• William Haseltine is chair and president of Access Health International, and author of the new book — “A Family Guide to Long Covid: Questions & Answers”.

For more:

Everyone should get the new COVID-19 booster, experts say, even if you have gotten previous vaccinations or come down with COVID-19 during the omicron wave in late 2021 and early 2022. https://t.co/TaYhVgRRHX

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) September 14, 2022

Are you thinking about removing your mask & skipping your next #COVID19 booster shot? Then you should first know the risks of Long COVID, @VirusesImmunity, a member of the @YaleAge lab, tells the @WashingtonPost. https://t.co/nd795TDjBb

— Yale Center for Research on Aging (Y-Age) (@YaleAge) September 7, 2022

From 2019 to 2021, the life expectancy of Native Americans fell from 71.8 years to 65.2. COVID-19 was largely to blame.

via @nytimes ⤵️ https://t.co/nbOucFKh5L #COVID19

— Star-Advertiser (@StarAdvertiser) September 10, 2022