Imagine navigating a world brimming with ever-changing viruses. It’s the world we live in, but it’s the world Dr. Michelle Crum, interim chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health at UT Tyler, has been studying for decades. She analyzes the current viral landscape, including the surprising early start of RSV last year, the unexpected rise in its cases, the development of two vaccines and a new pediatric treatment option. Crum also delves into the mysteries of COVID variants and the potential for a case spike during the winter months.
As she explains viral nomenclature, Crum highlights the crucial role vaccines play in preventing severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths, particularly among those ages 65 and older. Crumb lends her expertise in painting a clear image of how menacing viruses like COVID and RSV operate and mutate. She’ll share crucial updates on the most recent COVID vaccine’s rollout and reiterate the profound importance of vaccines in mitigating severe outcomes.
MIKE LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. You’re hearing more about that dreaded five-letter word, COVID. It’s in the news these days: new variations, new vaccine, a new federal program to provide home-testing kits. It’s very likely that you or someone you know has had strep-like symptoms, only to find out it was the latest COVID variation going around. With us to discuss all things COVID is UT Tyler’s Dr. Michelle Crum, who is the School of Medicine interim chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Population Health. She’s our guest today, and I stumbled over that because I’m thinking your business card must be 3×5. How do you get all of that information on there?
MICHELLE CRUM: It takes very small font.
LANDESS: Very small font. So, school resumed and so did the reported cases of flu, COVID and RSV.
CRUM: Yes. So, I’m so glad that you asked about them in combination, because when we think about flu, we don’t typically think about flu paired with COVID and RSV. But last year — and RSV is another respiratory virus that some listeners may not know as much about — but last year, we had the highest case numbers ever of RSV, and typically we think of it as a respiratory illness that predominantly affects children, especially young children under the age of two, or premature babies, or those who are 6 months or younger. But last year we saw a really large caseload in adults who are 65 and older, and we also saw that the virus started a little bit earlier in the community than we typically see, and it really put a strain on the hospitals, not just for pediatric care but also for adult care. So, this year we have some new tools at our disposal. So the good news is there are two vaccines that have now been developed that have recently been approved. And so if you are 65 or older, or you might have some underlying health conditions that might put you at greater risk-because for respiratory illness, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about if you should be one of the adults who’s vaccinated. We also have a treatment that wasn’t available before, available for the pediatric population. So, the two vaccines that have been approved-one of them is actually for older adults, and the other one is for both older adults or moms who are expecting a baby. So, if they’re in their third trimester, they can speak to their doctor about getting that vaccination. It provides protection for their newborn for a certain period of time, and if you’re having a baby in late fall and winter, when we typically see this virus peak, it’s a really good idea because it provides protection, especially if the baby might be premature.
LANDESS: Flu we’ve gotten used to in the fall. Most people get a flu shot in this time of year or late summer, but are there more COVID and RSV cases than in previous years in your experience?
CRUM: So, RSV cases are starting to increase in the southeastern United States. Right now, we’re not seeing as large of a peak as we saw last year, which, honestly, were the highest numbers we’ve ever seen for RSV. But typically, what happened in 2020 when we were mostly inside, we were masking, we were distancing, we were hand washing — all of these other respiratory viruses were completely disrupted. We didn’t see any flu, we didn’t see any RSV because none of us were together, right, because these all really spread the same way. They spread through respiratory droplets, they spread through touch to the face, the eyes, nose, mouth, right? Those are the common ways that they’re spread. And so when we’re not together, we know that that is less likely to spread. But we also know we can’t continue to be in that situation. So, as we’ve gone back to school and work in our normal routines, these viruses have reappeared. And I think that this year for the first year since 2020, we’re thinking this might be more of a regular season for RSV, where you see the peak in the late fall, early winter.
LANDESS: Let’s go back to that five-letter word. Are the latest variants of COVID as dangerous as the previous iterations? We don’t hear much about COVID deaths these days.
CRUM: Right. So that’s a question that’s difficult to answer without some explanation. So, I’ll say each variant is different. And what makes each variant different is similar to what you might think about if you and your cousin were going together somewhere and maybe you look a lot alike, but you might not behave the same way. Or you might behave exactly the same way, but you don’t look alike at all. So it’s similar with variants. We really don’t know because there’s just a number of changes that occur. Different variants have different number of changes that occur in the genetic component of the virus. And so when we look at them, they might seem similar, the symptoms might seem similar, but we never know if there might be some that cause more hospitalizations than another variant until after we’ve gone through that surge. With COVID, the virus that causes that SARS-CoV-2 has just really started to have a lot of siblings and cousins who all look very similar, but we’ve seen just a lot of different variants around. We’ve had two predominantly this fall, that have emerged, and it did cause a spike that has occurred. And we expect there could be another spike December, January, sometime in that time frame.
LANDESS: When you say “spike,” are you talking about number of cases or deaths or hospitalizations, or is it just in general?
CRUM: That’s a great clarifying question. So most of the time we think when I say spike I mean number of cases. But the number of cases is usually followed by increased hospitalizations about 2 weeks afterward, and then the deaths will also follow that if there’s resulting deaths from those cases.
LANDESS: Have they started rolling out what is purported to be the latest version of the COVID vaccine yet?
CRUM: They have, so this is considered an updated vaccine is the language that is being used, if you…
LANDESS: Updated on something that changes every time you turn around!
CRUM: That’s exactly right. So, you know, we in the past we’ve considered flu to be the virus that we’re familiar with changing constantly, and COVID is starting to also change very rapidly, and so the update is for that reason, to try to stay ahead of the virus a little bit and be able to have the protection. So, when you asked earlier about cases and deaths, those are really related to how many people are vaccinated as well, especially in populations that we know might have more issues with hospitalization and death. And again, it’s that 65-and-up population that we’re most concerned about. And we do have fairly good vaccination coverage of that age group in East Texas but not necessarily of other age groups.
LANDESS: Any final thoughts you’d like to share with our listeners before we wrap up?
CRUM: A lot of folks believe vaccines will stop us from getting whatever it is we’re trying to prevent entirely, when really vaccines are made to keep us from severe disease, from hospitalization, from death.
LANDESS: Our guest has been Dr. Michelle Crum. To hear this interview again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)