Chief Medical Officer at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital Dr. Kevin Most joins the Steve Cochran Show to discuss the importance of getting your annual COVID-19 shot, if over-the-counter cold medicines are ineffective, and he shares how an abscessed tooth affects your whole body.
Dr. Kevin Most’s Steve Cochran Show Notes:
Covid Vaccine annual shot now available
- Fully approved by FDA and CDC last week
- Approved for those over the age of 6 months
- This vaccine was built to target the XBB strain we saw in the spring, and is the offshoot of the current strains EG 5 and BA 2.86
- The vaccine will again protect you from severe illness and hospitalizations, and will minimize symptoms in those who get Covid
- Concern is vaccine apathy, as only 1 in 6 got the last booster, and with decreased tracking cases are being discussed anecdotally versus actual rates as we have stopped tracking closely.
- Many feel their natural immunity as well as previous vaccinations will continue to protect them
- When to get vaccinated – now or soon unless you have had a recent infection, in which case you can wait 3 months, or got the bivalent vaccine in the last 2 months
- Getting the flu vaccine and the Covid vaccine at the same time is fine, and getting them in both arms has been shown to increase immunity
- Officials in Florida are telling people under 65 to not get the Covid vaccine, political ignorance may actually impact the health of those in Florida and those who travel to Florida
- Some pediatricians are on the fence for the vaccine with young healthy children, as most children do quite well with the current Covid infections
Decongestant found in many oral cold meds is ineffective per FDA
- Phenylephrine is found in almost all OTC cold medications, over 250 products
- Recent review of studies by the FDA showed that this medication is not actually effective in treating congestion
- FDA Advisory committee voted 16- 0 , that the drug does not work as advertised for oral medications
- It has been studied to show that when taken orally only a very small portion of the medication is actually absorbed
- FDA may prompt that all of these oral medications be pulled now that they have shown it is ineffective
- If pulled, this will be very disruptive thru cold season as the companies then determine next steps for reformulation, and patients may be left with few options
- There have been studies since 2007 showing phenylephrine is no better than placebo when looking at decongesting
- These products are worth close to $2 billion dollars in sales each year
- This medication became popular in 2006, when the FDA removed pseudoephedrine from direct OTC, to a point where you need to ask the pharmacist and your purchase is logged
- Drug companies then switched from pseudoephedrine to phenylephrine for the direct OTC products
- Studies for the effectiveness for phenylephrine were done by the drug manufacturers, not based on peer reviewed clinical trials
- This change occurred because drug dealers were using, the then OTC pseudoephedrine , to make methamphetamine
- Some medications that Phenylephrine is found in- Sudafed Sinus Congestion, Tylenol Cold and Flu, Nyquil cold and flu and many others
- Phenylephrine has been shown to be effective in a nasal spray form
