Joining us on WRCO's morning show, we have Dr. Andrew Wright from the Richland Hospital to talk about the upcoming seasons and certainly talking about some vaccinations and things like that.
I guess it is the season, Dr. Wright.
Good morning.
Good morning, yes.
Good to have you in here with us.
Respiratory season, the virus season coming up.
I guess we want to talk about why vaccinations are an important thing.
Yes, well, the season's already begun.
We're seeing, obviously, the sniffles and colds.
And so the ones that we can action on for vaccines include influenza, COVID-19, and then RSV, depending on, you know, the population, and we can go through that.
So for influenza, you know, why vaccinate?
It's about a 5% hospitalization rate for influenza, which is pretty high.
And that is taken from a study of a billion people, where about 5 million were then hospitalized.
I think I got my math right on that.
Maybe it's, hold on, let me do this.
No, 0.5%.
There we go.
And those hospitalizations can be serious.
We get them every year.
Usually that's going to be either children under two,
particularly children under one, or people older than 65.
That's who generally gets hospitalized.
RSV is similar, almost identical in terms of hospitalizations, usually younger children under a year, and then people older than 65, 70.
COVID has changed because most of us have immunity because it's been around.
Clearly, it's not as deadly as it was when it first came out in 2020.
So that being said, there's still
some risk and we can go over percentages in terms of how the vaccine can help and in what way and for who.
of
Oh, that's a good question.
Yeah.
So and sometimes when people say the flu, they mean a stomach or intestinal inflammation, which we sometimes call the stomach flu.
And so influenza is primarily a respiratory disease.
How do you differentiate it, say from the common cold?
Well, it can be difficult.
There are some things that help, though.
There are sometimes GI symptoms, both COVID and influenza can give you some diarrhea.
That would be a differentiator from the cold.
Cold doesn't really
that like rhino virus, coronavirus, the non-COVID coronaviruses don't do that.
Another way to differentiate is high fever.
especially if your immune system is robust and you get a high fever, that's not common with the common cold.
You generally don't see that.
And then the other one is common cold settle usually in the upper respiratory tract, so like the nose, the throat.
Some people will get a very sore throat for a day or two and they think, oh no, I have strep.
If they give it a day or two, and if it gets better, it's more likely a cold virus.
Whereas influenza is gonna go quickly into the lower respiratory tract, so in the lungs, similar with COVID and RSV.
So respiratory syncytial virus.
And so for people over 65, 70, for kids under one year old, the reason it's so leads to such a high rate of hospitalizations is it produces a tremendous amount of mucus.
It induces the cells in the lung lining to produce a tremendous amount of mucus.
Well, if there's mucus, then your oxygen exchange isn't as good.
And so you've
end up with low oxygen.
We don't have any approved antiviral treatments for it.
So when someone needs to be hospitalized, you're supporting them with supplemental oxygen.
Occasionally, you can use epinephrine.
Occasionally, that will be helpful.
That's about it.
Steroids haven't shown a role for RSV.
So what do you do?
We now have, over the past five years, we've developed a prevention strategy.
And so the target populations for the RSV vaccine would be children under eight months old, pregnant moms to give immunity to their children.
And the ideal window there is 30 to 36 weeks pregnant.
And then the time this vaccine happens then is going to be September through March.
through the season and then it's also recommended for people over 75 because the risk is higher and then if someone were say immuno-compromise say that say they've had a kidney transplant in the age group from 50 to 74
that will also benefit and have reduced hospitalization.
What we're trying to prevent with all of these vaccines is hospitalization and obviously dying.
Yeah, so I would say that in general, if someone is still eating,
drinking, they're not struggling to breathe, weighted out a day or two.
I would say for young children under two, if you get temperature 100.4 or higher, greater than 48 hours, or any signs of respiratory distress, right?
A good way to check a baby for respiratory distress is to check their breathing rate when they're sleeping, right?
So if you have a child, say, under six months of age, and that respiratory rate is 50 to 60,
respirations per minute when they're sleeping, that could be pneumonia.
That could be something more serious.
And then if you're getting a little older, if it's above 40, that could still be pneumonia.
So those are times to get concerned fever and high respiratory rate and just, you know, if they can't eat and drink, get them in.
Yeah.
Yeah, so the pneumococcal vaccine, this is a common misconception.
It is for invasive pneumococcal disease.
So what's invasive pneumococcal disease?
That means meningitis.
It means endocarditis.
It means epidural abscess.
So it doesn't necessarily, it has a small effect on reducing pneumonia due to pneumococcus, but its bigger role is to prevent these other more invasive.
diseases.
That's what it's for.
And that is recommended now 50 and older basically.
And then if someone's younger than 50 and has a compelling reason, say they have bad asthma, COPD, diabetes, immunocompromised from transplant or rheumatoid or other autoimmune diseases, those are the people who get that one.
Is that a yearly shot?
No, it is not.
So depending on the population, it can be every five years until 65, then one after.
You
The newer ones cover the...
These bacteria have different coats, if you will, different disguises.
And so you want to cover a number of those disguises.
That's why you'll see that now we use the PCV21 or the PCV20.
The C refers to conjugate vaccine that's attached to something else.
There used to be a PSSV, and that was a polysaccharide, attached, sugar-attached vaccine.
We don't use that one anymore.
And then, yeah, and then after 65, it's just one.
Yeah, I think that's all I can say about that one.
Well, the main one is puzzles me, Phil, is they don't trust the science.
In other words, they don't trust how efficacious they are.
So I wanted to run through those numbers.
So that's the biggest thing.
How much will this help?
Does the flu vaccine do anything?
Because it's not a perfect match.
And we'll go through that here shortly.
And then people are skeptical or not skeptical or afraid of the mRNA technology.
mRNA refers to messenger RNA.
Just a quick review.
The cells in the nucleus is DNA.
And that then gets transcribed to RNA.
which then comes out of the nucleus into the main part of the cell or the factory to make proteins is and so that RNA then makes the proteins we need to protect ourselves to build cells to build muscles things proteins do and so an mRNA vaccine is you're injecting mRNA into the bloodstream which then goes into the white blood cells
which then codes for the proteins we need.
So, for example, the COVID vaccine coded for spike protein, which was one of the proteins that would attach to our cells, invade our cells, cause the COVID disease.
And so, that's how they work.
People were thinking it would change their genetic code.
It actually doesn't go to the nucleus.
So it does not change genetic code because it doesn't go there.
It doesn't go where the genetic code is stored.
It just goes into the main cell where the factories to make proteins are.
And it's very interesting because we have maybe seen in the news lately, we have a new vaccine for pancreatic cancer.
That's an mRNA vaccine.
I would be willing to bet that anyone with pancreatic cancer that has the genetic signature that would benefit from that vaccine is going to take it.
Meaning sometimes we have these ideological ideas, but when the rubber hits the road, we're going to use something that helps.
And I do have confidence in people that they ultimately will trust the science.
We trust the science for, say, the nutrition.
We feed our cattle.
And we get new recommendations on how to change that to improve your milk yield or the quality of your beef.
Why would we not trust the science on vaccines?
Which is studied in exactly the same way nutrition science is studied.
Yeah, right.
And that's a direct result of decreased vaccination of measles.
Canada has already lost their eradication title.
This is confusing to many people.
You can have measles cases and still say it's eradicated.
There's a certain threshold number.
We're probably going to lose that title of eradication.
And that has to do with
protecting larger communities.
So I can just give you, there is a lot to rely, but you can still go to the CDC.
It's been politicized a little bit, meaning, for example, there were two recent deaths in New York, both caused by the measles, both initially listed as not caused by the measles, until some reporters investigated.
One was a child under a year old, clearly died from complications of the measles.
Another one was an older adult.
Those are the two vulnerable populations again, who died of a measles pneumonia.
It was listed as pneumonia, but they ultimately did.
So in Wisconsin, the better thing is you go to the CDC website on measles, just Google CDC measles, and then you can go to Wisconsin keeps a robust state database.
So in 2026, we have had 144 cases.
I just checked it today.
143 of those cases are in unvaccinated individuals.
Two measles vaccines gives you 97% chance of not getting the measles.
One measles vaccine gives you somewhere around 92 to 95% chance of not getting the measles.
It's a highly effective vaccine.
That's a good question, too.
So you have a couple of options there.
Let's say you're an adult coming to clinic.
I've had this lately.
over the past few weeks because you know our adjacent counties had quite a few cases Grant and Iowa County And so, you know, it's just a matter of time before we get more cases here in Richland County We've already we have a contingency plan at the hospital about how to isolate and Diagnose this this is the most contagious respiratory virus And it's one of the ones that's more severe.
So, you know one in a thousand about
people who get measles will die, regardless of the care they get.
So the game is to prevent them from getting measles in the first place.
Hospitalization rates vary.
So for example, in Wisconsin, of those 144 cases, we had four hospitalizations, zero deaths.
The vaccine works.
That's all I can tell you.
It really, it dramatically, if you look nationwide, the trend we see in Wisconsin is true.
About 99% of the people getting the measles now are unvaccinated.
well I've always said that people who vaccinate people who don't vaccinate have the same goal of protecting their children yeah that we share in common and it's just how do I accomplish that I think some folks are willing to accept the risk of this you know
severe disease being rare, right?
So the two main complications from measles are going to be severe pneumonia.
And then there's both an immediate and delayed inflammation of the brain that can happen.
The delayed ones dreaded because again, that's preventable is you don't know, we don't know who's going to get that.
And it happens several months later, and it's devastating, obviously, because it often leads to death.
But you know, you're talking about a one in a thousand chance, some people are willing to take that.
on a population basis?
Why would anyone, you know, if you think about, you've got, let's do some quick math here.
So if you've got a million people, that means a thousand of them will die if none of them are vaccinated.
Well, that seems like a big number to me.
You know, that seems unnecessary.
Yeah.
That's a good question too.
So the influenza vaccine
has sort of peak immunity for about four months.
Both vaccines take about two weeks to take effect.
You can get them together.
You can get them with RSV at the same time as well.
So if you think the influenza season generally, generally runs from sort of Thanksgiving through the end of April, you get about six months of coverage from the vaccine.
So I usually counsel people late October is or early, very early November is the sweet spot.
I know they start rolling them out at the end of August.
Last year, as a hospitalist, I had a few cases where people vaccinated in early September.
These are people over 75 were hospitalized for in funds to be in April, meaning I think there's a value of not getting the vaccine too early.
Obviously, there's a value of not getting it too late.
Yeah.
which you need at least two weeks, two weeks prior.
you'll have your immunity.
That's true.
Yes.
And I think that actually, Phil, that's an impediment.
People say, we hear this a lot.
I'm not getting the flu vaccine because I got the flu from the flu vaccine.
It is not a live vaccine.
There is a live intranasal one, but most people don't get that.
So in general, it's not a live vaccine.
And so it cannot give you the flu, but it can give you a reaction, right?
So there's two reasons for the reaction.
One is it's your body's immune system ramping up.
In the flu vaccine, it's either called the trivalent or the quadrivalent.
It is against the two
Most significant proteins of the flu virus that they use to break through into our cells Namely hemagglutinin and naremides.
That's why you'll see H and N and different types H1 H2 and 1 and 2 And so we it's a bit of a guessing game, right?
And then we several months prior because we're growing these in culture And sometimes those are on eggs We're growing them.
We're trying to match that and so
that's the immunity we want to get.
I forgot your question
oh yeah correct yeah yeah so so the one thing is your body's reaction right you're ramping up an immune response and that can make you you know that releases inflammatory to pro-inflammatory markers sort of boosters to get an immune response that
discomfort usually is a day or two for most people that can take some Tylenol or rest and they're through it.
The other one is a reaction to some of the reagents in the vaccine.
We do not use mercury in vaccines anymore.
That's not there.
That hasn't been for a while.
These are mostly preservative free vaccines.
I think the only ones we stock are preservative free.
But you could react to some other vehicle that's in there and that can lead to a robust local reaction.
In very rare cases, you can get a very serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is very serious.
And that can happen with any vaccine.
That's not unique to the flu vaccine or RSV vaccine.
And that is loss of motor neuron function, usually ascending from the lower extremities.
Not always completely resolving, right?
So there'll be a percentage of weakness.
How common is that?
it's not common at all.
Have I seen it?
I have.
Yeah, I have.
Yeah, I mean, okay, so so yeah, so if you're kind of in that group, that's where I wanted to just pull out some statistics here, because this will help people, I'm just going to give the percentages, right?
So you can decide whether you want to take your chances or not.
So
Targeting high risk population, so in adults over 65, you can reduce your hospitalization rate by somewhere around 30 to 40%.
For people six months to 17 years old, you can reduce your chance of dying by 20%, but keep in mind dying is a rare.
comorbid, you know, rare event with flu, but you reduce it by 20%.
You reduce all severe flu by 20 to 30, more like 30%.
You reduce symptomatic disease in kids under one by about 60%.
So that's a pretty big impact.
The youngest, so there's this strong recommendation for influenza vaccine for six months to 23 months especially because they're more vulnerable to more severe disease.
And then all-comer hospitalization in older adults is reduced by 60%.
So those are the kind of benefits we get.
When people say, how effective is the flu vaccine?
In general, if you look at a 10-year cohort, it reduces the risk of disease and death by 40%.
That's the short answer.
Last year was not a perfect match.
It's never a perfect match, but it was a little worse than usual.
It reduced it by about 33%.
2023 so the 2025 vaccine was slightly less effective 2023 was a really good year.
We were almost 60% but
If you take 10 years, it's about 40% reduction.
think, yeah, I mean, it's a pretty high number.
And the other thing you're talking about, you're talking about lost workdays, lost days in school, if your child is home from school, that means you might be home from work.
So those are the other benefits besides the more serious ones.
Yeah, so there's actually been some some movement on that.
And again, I wanted to just, so this is another, that one I just read to you was influenza vaccine effectiveness and safety for 26-27, and that was a JAMA special communication, just put out September 2nd.
This also just put out September 2nd was effectiveness of the COVID vaccine.
And so again, I'll give you the numbers here.
So let's start with who is most at risk.
So the IDSA, which is the Infectious Disease Society of America, has really focused on the immunocompromised.
So they're saying essentially anybody who's had a transplant, anybody on these rheumatologic drugs, these autoimmune drugs to suppress immune system, get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Because already they don't mount as good a response and we have robust data.
to prevent hospitalization and death for that group.
In fact, the data is most robust for that group.
And so that's why they've confined it to that recommendation.
We know there's community immunity, right?
So here's currently, what can the vaccine do?
I'm sorry.
Let me also, the other high-risk groups are older than 65.
And then anybody, you can think of it, what does COVID-19 do to us?
It causes
mini clots, right?
So anybody at risk of mini clots and the dangers of mini clots.
So older than 65, obese, sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension, these are people who are at higher risk of mini clots.
What does a mini clot cause?
Well, a mini clot can cause a stroke.
A mini clot can cause a pulmonary embolism.
A mini clot can cause a heart attack.
I have seen all three of those complications from getting COVID.
So even though
we're not seeing these respiratory inflammation and death, which is great, right?
Because, you know, COVID just doesn't, quite frankly, doesn't kill people the way it used to.
Thank God.
We're still seeing these complications from clotting.
And then the American College of Cardiology also points out, for people at increased risk of getting age fibrillation, that inflammation from COVID also increases the risk of getting age fibrillation.
So who's at risk for age fibrillation?
Obese, sleep apnea, hypertension.
heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
People who drink alcohol too much.
So those are people who should think about it.
So here's the benefits by the numbers.
So greater than 65 reduces the risk of hospitalization by half.
So that population still gets a benefit.
For pregnant women, it reduces the risk of going to urgent care by 40%.
So take that as you would.
And then if mom gets the vaccine, it cuts the risk of hospitalization for the baby by 50%.
Keep in mind, though, that hospitalization rates for COVID for babies is low.
The biggest benefit for that nine month to four year old is reduction in emergency room visits by 25%.
So you can see the benefit to the 65 and older is
much higher than the benefit to these other groups, but there are those moments.
Here's the big one.
Reduction of 50% in death with immunocompromised people.
That's why IDSA is focusing on that group continuing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Also keep in mind that having had COVID within the last year gives you the same immunity as the vaccine.
And for people who have had COVID multiple times or have had multiple vaccines, particularly more than two, they have pretty good immunity.
heard that.
Yeah, so there was a few high profile cases in teenagers of inflammation of the heart muscle.
COVID itself causes inflammation of the heart muscle at a slightly higher rate than the vaccine did in that group.
So teenage boys more than girls.
However, if a person were to separate out
the first and second vaccine, let's say this is when they're they have no immunity whatsoever, you reduce that risk of heart muscle inflammation, instead of going two months, if you went three to five months, you reduce it almost nothing.
But yeah, there were a few high profile cases.
So so although rare, yes, that was a complication of the vaccine in that age group, you know, and then you notice I didn't list any significant benefits for that age group in getting the vaccine.
So you have to kind of take it as a way I did see one case
of severe global immune inflammation so skid or not not come up immune compromise I can't remember the acronym for it but I did see a case of that where a young man aged 11 got two COVID cases in a row
And so he, but he, so we recognized it, sent him off to children's, he got the treatment, he did fine.
And so the vaccine would have helped him in that case.
Those are rare cases, but there are these rare severe complications of the, excuse me, of the disease.
Yeah, so there's a, there's a brand new antiviral out.
So we have the pack slow of it, right?
And again, if, if, if I'm
it's not recommended for someone who is under 65, you know, over four who's healthy to use this antiviral.
But unless you're around someone who's immunocompromised, then you should take it.
And then you can give prophylaxis to the people who are exposed.
So this new one, I am blanking on the name, but I just read this the other day.
It's antiviral, it's for contacts and people who have it, and it is slightly better
at reducing the illness and preventing you from getting it, then pack slow it.
So we'll see that on the shelves.
The current price tag for that five day course is $1,400.
So I don't think the uptake's gonna be too high until that price comes down.
Well, that's good.
Yeah.
So there are definitely some, you know, we don't have rigorous studies, but we know certain things help.
We know that garlic helps cell mediated immunity.
We know that.
And so that is something a person can have.
The jury is still out on vitamin C and high-dose vitamin C. There doesn't seem to be any harm.
We don't know the benefits.
A lot of us use it and seems to shorten the viral illness, but we don't have robust data to support that.
This might make people sad, but there's no data for echinacea having any significant benefit.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, go ahead and take it.
There's no harm.
But, you know, yeah.
And then similarly for elderberry is another one you sometimes see.
you know,
it's shortening it.
It's well worth it in those cases, especially when
there's no harm.
Yes, I mean there are several, I would say, reliable sources.
I have to say right now the CDC's in flux and several medical organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatricians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and IDSA have come out with their own recommendations, but I don't expect
people to go to all those different sites.
But there is a good site that sort of acts as a clearinghouse for these.
It's a nonprofit.
It's called the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
And they have sort of an evidence based vaccine section.
So that's www.nfid.org.
Let's see.
Well, I always listen to a little bit of bluegrass really in Americana Yes, and then My colleague at work got me listening to Olivia Dean, which I really enjoy her music Wonderful.
Yeah, so so all over the board and then always always classical music I have
exchanged listening to the news in the morning for classical music for the past year and I think that's probably helped more than anything.
I think so too.
while.
Relative to our immune systems, we know that, you know, taking their studies on this, taking a walk in nature will boost your immune system.
Getting the sleep you need, there is no replacement for good sleep in terms of the strength it gives to our immune system.
it?
Right.
So the key is to listen to that country song and maybe have an NA beer.
season.
You
Dr. Andrew Wright joining us in this portion of the morning show.
On a morning show today from WDRCO, we're going to spotlight Immaculate Conception Church in Bosquebell and upcoming big do-ins, as we like to say, the charcoal broiled chicken barbecue.
Joining us, Quinn Hertz and Teresa Brewer.
Quinn, welcome back to the studio.
Good to see you again.
Thank you, Phil.
It's been, gosh, I'd say all the way back to 1978 that I've been jumping around.
introducing this event for a basketball church.
We've done a long time.
Ron Fruitt was here and you and first of all I want to thank you guys and WRCO for what you've done for us over those years.
always a question.
This is going to be the 69th annual event and it's a family event that we tried to put on and
I think there were two years during the COVID that we did not have this event.
So this goes back a long time.
It's a chicken barbecue meal.
It's charcoal broiled and we serve a lot of local people for sure.
I'm going to let you turn this over to Theresa Brewer for just a moment, and she'll explain some of the activities that will be done during this event.
So, Theresa.
Well, I actually took over in charge of the chicken barbecue.
This will be my third year now, um, since someone who had been doing it for several years, um, moved on.
So I've, Tom Waltz was doing it for a lot of years and had to, um, find, you know, something else that he was headed to do.
I think the recipe that they use, it's a family recipe from.
Like I said, it's been going on for 69 years now, so you can't beat that.
Tarboiled chicken, and then the German potato salad is a big hit as well.
If people like German potato salad, it's the best place to get it.
And we also have, so the price for the meal is $15 for the adults.
The children under five are free, and five to 12, it's $5.
And the children's meal includes
drumstick and macaroni and cheese and rice crispy treats.
And then we also have all kinds of games for the kids that will be going on.
We have a petting zoo that's going to be there this year.
Fishing pond.
We do a sawdust egg.
For the adults, we have free bingo.
We also are going to have a live auction and we have meat paddles.
That's been a big hit the last couple of years.
And we have bean bags.
There's a 1130 sign up and a total payout for that.
And that's a very popular game.
on.
Yes, we have the big raffle.
And this year, actually, we had an e-bike on that for $10 tickets for an e-bike sponsored by Crazy Linnies out of Madison.
And we're only selling 200 tickets of that.
So that's a good deal, I think.
for a $10 ticket toward any bikes.
on Sunday.
This raffle is a $5,000 raffle.
First prize is $3,000.
There's actually 18 winners.
There's 10 winners that each get $100.
And then we, like I said, a total of 18 winners.
So that has been
part of our earnings as well.
Incidentally, the purpose of this particular event this year is to raise money to repair our bell tower.
It's been an ongoing project and here to four it's been more or less a patch job where we
try to patch up the problem and it hasn't worked.
So as we speak right now they're in the process of tearing down part of that tower and redoing the whole structure.
So also you spoke about the meal itself.
One big feature of this meal is homemade pies and the ladies of
the community or the church they make these pies and they're not bought in pies incidentally they're not eight inch or nine inch pies these are full 12 inch pies and that's always a big plus when you get a meal most of these events as you go around the country
They have basically the same product, but they don't give away a free piece of pie as well.
So this is an event that we look forward to doing for the community and for our church.
And the masses on this particular day will be at 10 o'clock starting.
The Muscaday St.
John's has generally have a 10 o'clock Sunday Mass.
We switched with them.
We gave them the 830 for this particular Sunday and we're taking the 10 o'clock so that people are able to come to church and then right thereafter walk across the street to the hall and have dinner.
This is what we're doing for the community and it's pretty well accepted.
Whether they're of the Catholic Church or whatever, it doesn't make any difference.
It's well received in the area.
And I again want to thank you and Round Fruit and the WRCO for what you have done for us over the years.
you've been
I think it was 78 something like that oh
well all of them I think it goes back all the way I can't remember who all I spoke to here but we we've enjoyed it
And I told Trace, I believe this is probably my last year that I'm gonna participate at this level.
I was chair of the Chicken Barbecue for the best of eight or 10 years.
And prior to that, we had Tennessee Marks, who everybody knew in the country.
And then after me, Tom Waltz stuck it for like six or eight years.
And then Trace has taken it in the past three years.
It just doesn't happen.
4.30.
I'll be there watching them brew the chicken or the chicken and the grill.
always like to see the fire take off.
That's really cool to see.
they've passed the torch to you, so to
I do want to say that we do have deliveries.
So people can call.
The number is 608-375-4257.
And we take down that order.
for a delivery, and we have someone that'll run it out to them.
So that's one of the things I'm really excited.
And carryouts, people drive up and get the carryouts as well.
So that's a whole different opportunity.
A lot of people take it home to...
watch the game at home and eat their meal.
Sure.
Incidentally, Phil, I introduced Tracea Brewer to you as she is the chairman of this particular event, but she is the Lieutenant Colonel of Retired, so she's done her military service too.
as Quinn said.
It
Yes, exactly.
We have actually like 22 gift baskets plus a bonus basket.
They buy, you know, a $20 book.
They're able to get their name in for the bonus basket, which is worth $600.
So that's another fun thing that we do that people can take part in.
Based on history.
History, okay.
Yeah, that's basically what it is.
And I also have to mention that we have a bean bag.
Contest every year also and people come in from Prairie and all around to be a part of that and It's a total payout.
It's $10 a person or a team for $20 and and so if they have 20 teams way, you know, it's a pretty nice person So it draws quite a few people for that.
Yes, you know, so
Oh, yes, definitely.
Okay, they even did a service at Castle Rock with the Bishop there this past
two weeks ago.
so it's a big area.
Yes.
Yeah, a lot of churches that one priest has to
covers.
Make the
No, I'm a cherry pie.
Cherry
Oh yeah,
Apple cherry and pumpkin.
My favorite is apple.
Yeah, it's hard to beat that.
It is hard to beat apple.
ones.
Exactly.
They
people still do.
Still do.
I think that pretty well covers it.
No.
Although we wish everyone, you know, a good life.
At 86, I've been around.
Well, you look good.
Well, I had my first hole in one last year.
Is that right?
I don't think they're too many 85 year olds having hole in ones, but not just bragging.
What was the
then?
145.
impressive.
Hickory Grove, Panama.
That's awesome.
You're living life right.
Well, we hope a lot of people will come out and enjoy the Charcoal Broil Chicken Barbecue Sunday, September 20th at a Mac of the Conception Church in Bosqueville.
Thanks to Quinn Hertz and Teresa Brewer for being our guest.
Joining us on WRCO's morning show, we have Dr. Andrew Wright from the Richland Hospital to talk about the upcoming seasons and certainly talking about some vaccinations and things like that.
I guess it is the season, Dr. Wright.
Good morning.
Good morning, yes.
Good to have you in here with us.
Respiratory season, the virus season coming up.
I guess we want to talk about why vaccinations are an important thing.
Yes, well, the season's already begun.
We're seeing, obviously, the sniffles and colds.
And so the ones that we can action on for vaccines include influenza, COVID-19, and then RSV, depending on, you know, the population, and we can go through that.
So for influenza, you know, why vaccinate?
It's about a 5% hospitalization rate for influenza, which is pretty high.
And that is taken from a study of a billion people, where about 5 million were then hospitalized.
I think I got my math right on that.
Maybe it's, hold on, let me do this.
No, 0.5%.
There we go.
And those hospitalizations can be serious.
We get them every year.
Usually that's going to be either children under two,
particularly children under one, or people older than 65.
That's who generally gets hospitalized.
RSV is similar, almost identical in terms of hospitalizations, usually younger children under a year, and then people older than 65, 70.
COVID has changed because most of us have immunity because it's been around.
Clearly, it's not as deadly as it was when it first came out in 2020.
So that being said, there's still
some risk and we can go over percentages in terms of how the vaccine can help and in what way and for who.
of
Oh, that's a good question.
Yeah.
So and sometimes when people say the flu, they mean a stomach or intestinal inflammation, which we sometimes call the stomach flu.
And so influenza is primarily a respiratory disease.
How do you differentiate it, say from the common cold?
Well, it can be difficult.
There are some things that help, though.
There are sometimes GI symptoms, both COVID and influenza can give you some diarrhea.
That would be a differentiator from the cold.
Cold doesn't really
that like rhino virus, coronavirus, the non-COVID coronaviruses don't do that.
Another way to differentiate is high fever.
especially if your immune system is robust and you get a high fever, that's not common with the common cold.
You generally don't see that.
And then the other one is common cold settle usually in the upper respiratory tract, so like the nose, the throat.
Some people will get a very sore throat for a day or two and they think, oh no, I have strep.
If they give it a day or two, and if it gets better, it's more likely a cold virus.
Whereas influenza is gonna go quickly into the lower respiratory tract, so in the lungs, similar with COVID and RSV.
So respiratory syncytial virus.
And so for people over 65, 70, for kids under one year old, the reason it's so leads to such a high rate of hospitalizations is it produces a tremendous amount of mucus.
It induces the cells in the lung lining to produce a tremendous amount of mucus.
Well, if there's mucus, then your oxygen exchange isn't as good.
And so you've
end up with low oxygen.
We don't have any approved antiviral treatments for it.
So when someone needs to be hospitalized, you're supporting them with supplemental oxygen.
Occasionally, you can use epinephrine.
Occasionally, that will be helpful.
That's about it.
Steroids haven't shown a role for RSV.
So what do you do?
We now have, over the past five years, we've developed a prevention strategy.
And so the target populations for the RSV vaccine would be children under eight months old, pregnant moms to give immunity to their children.
And the ideal window there is 30 to 36 weeks pregnant.
And then the time this vaccine happens then is going to be September through March.
through the season and then it's also recommended for people over 75 because the risk is higher and then if someone were say immuno-compromise say that say they've had a kidney transplant in the age group from 50 to 74
that will also benefit and have reduced hospitalization.
What we're trying to prevent with all of these vaccines is hospitalization and obviously dying.
Yeah, so I would say that in general, if someone is still eating,
drinking, they're not struggling to breathe, weighted out a day or two.
I would say for young children under two, if you get temperature 100.4 or higher, greater than 48 hours, or any signs of respiratory distress, right?
A good way to check a baby for respiratory distress is to check their breathing rate when they're sleeping, right?
So if you have a child, say, under six months of age, and that respiratory rate is 50 to 60,
respirations per minute when they're sleeping, that could be pneumonia.
That could be something more serious.
And then if you're getting a little older, if it's above 40, that could still be pneumonia.
So those are times to get concerned fever and high respiratory rate and just, you know, if they can't eat and drink, get them in.
Yeah.
Yeah, so the pneumococcal vaccine, this is a common misconception.
It is for invasive pneumococcal disease.
So what's invasive pneumococcal disease?
That means meningitis.
It means endocarditis.
It means epidural abscess.
So it doesn't necessarily, it has a small effect on reducing pneumonia due to pneumococcus, but its bigger role is to prevent these other more invasive.
diseases.
That's what it's for.
And that is recommended now 50 and older basically.
And then if someone's younger than 50 and has a compelling reason, say they have bad asthma, COPD, diabetes, immunocompromised from transplant or rheumatoid or other autoimmune diseases, those are the people who get that one.
Is that a yearly shot?
No, it is not.
So depending on the population, it can be every five years until 65, then one after.
You
The newer ones cover the...
These bacteria have different coats, if you will, different disguises.
And so you want to cover a number of those disguises.
That's why you'll see that now we use the PCV21 or the PCV20.
The C refers to conjugate vaccine that's attached to something else.
There used to be a PSSV, and that was a polysaccharide, attached, sugar-attached vaccine.
We don't use that one anymore.
And then, yeah, and then after 65, it's just one.
Yeah, I think that's all I can say about that one.
Well, the main one is puzzles me, Phil, is they don't trust the science.
In other words, they don't trust how efficacious they are.
So I wanted to run through those numbers.
So that's the biggest thing.
How much will this help?
Does the flu vaccine do anything?
Because it's not a perfect match.
And we'll go through that here shortly.
And then people are skeptical or not skeptical or afraid of the mRNA technology.
mRNA refers to messenger RNA.
Just a quick review.
The cells in the nucleus is DNA.
And that then gets transcribed to RNA.
which then comes out of the nucleus into the main part of the cell or the factory to make proteins is and so that RNA then makes the proteins we need to protect ourselves to build cells to build muscles things proteins do and so an mRNA vaccine is you're injecting mRNA into the bloodstream which then goes into the white blood cells
which then codes for the proteins we need.
So, for example, the COVID vaccine coded for spike protein, which was one of the proteins that would attach to our cells, invade our cells, cause the COVID disease.
And so, that's how they work.
People were thinking it would change their genetic code.
It actually doesn't go to the nucleus.
So it does not change genetic code because it doesn't go there.
It doesn't go where the genetic code is stored.
It just goes into the main cell where the factories to make proteins are.
And it's very interesting because we have maybe seen in the news lately, we have a new vaccine for pancreatic cancer.
That's an mRNA vaccine.
I would be willing to bet that anyone with pancreatic cancer that has the genetic signature that would benefit from that vaccine is going to take it.
Meaning sometimes we have these ideological ideas, but when the rubber hits the road, we're going to use something that helps.
And I do have confidence in people that they ultimately will trust the science.
We trust the science for, say, the nutrition.
We feed our cattle.
And we get new recommendations on how to change that to improve your milk yield or the quality of your beef.
Why would we not trust the science on vaccines?
Which is studied in exactly the same way nutrition science is studied.
Yeah, right.
And that's a direct result of decreased vaccination of measles.
Canada has already lost their eradication title.
This is confusing to many people.
You can have measles cases and still say it's eradicated.
There's a certain threshold number.
We're probably going to lose that title of eradication.
And that has to do with
protecting larger communities.
So I can just give you, there is a lot to rely, but you can still go to the CDC.
It's been politicized a little bit, meaning, for example, there were two recent deaths in New York, both caused by the measles, both initially listed as not caused by the measles, until some reporters investigated.
One was a child under a year old, clearly died from complications of the measles.
Another one was an older adult.
Those are the two vulnerable populations again, who died of a measles pneumonia.
It was listed as pneumonia, but they ultimately did.
So in Wisconsin, the better thing is you go to the CDC website on measles, just Google CDC measles, and then you can go to Wisconsin keeps a robust state database.
So in 2026, we have had 144 cases.
I just checked it today.
143 of those cases are in unvaccinated individuals.
Two measles vaccines gives you 97% chance of not getting the measles.
One measles vaccine gives you somewhere around 92 to 95% chance of not getting the measles.
It's a highly effective vaccine.
That's a good question, too.
So you have a couple of options there.
Let's say you're an adult coming to clinic.
I've had this lately.
over the past few weeks because you know our adjacent counties had quite a few cases Grant and Iowa County And so, you know, it's just a matter of time before we get more cases here in Richland County We've already we have a contingency plan at the hospital about how to isolate and Diagnose this this is the most contagious respiratory virus And it's one of the ones that's more severe.
So, you know one in a thousand about
people who get measles will die, regardless of the care they get.
So the game is to prevent them from getting measles in the first place.
Hospitalization rates vary.
So for example, in Wisconsin, of those 144 cases, we had four hospitalizations, zero deaths.
The vaccine works.
That's all I can tell you.
It really, it dramatically, if you look nationwide, the trend we see in Wisconsin is true.
About 99% of the people getting the measles now are unvaccinated.
well I've always said that people who vaccinate people who don't vaccinate have the same goal of protecting their children yeah that we share in common and it's just how do I accomplish that I think some folks are willing to accept the risk of this you know
severe disease being rare, right?
So the two main complications from measles are going to be severe pneumonia.
And then there's both an immediate and delayed inflammation of the brain that can happen.
The delayed ones dreaded because again, that's preventable is you don't know, we don't know who's going to get that.
And it happens several months later, and it's devastating, obviously, because it often leads to death.
But you know, you're talking about a one in a thousand chance, some people are willing to take that.
on a population basis?
Why would anyone, you know, if you think about, you've got, let's do some quick math here.
So if you've got a million people, that means a thousand of them will die if none of them are vaccinated.
Well, that seems like a big number to me.
You know, that seems unnecessary.
Yeah.
That's a good question too.
So the influenza vaccine
has sort of peak immunity for about four months.
Both vaccines take about two weeks to take effect.
You can get them together.
You can get them with RSV at the same time as well.
So if you think the influenza season generally, generally runs from sort of Thanksgiving through the end of April, you get about six months of coverage from the vaccine.
So I usually counsel people late October is or early, very early November is the sweet spot.
I know they start rolling them out at the end of August.
Last year, as a hospitalist, I had a few cases where people vaccinated in early September.
These are people over 75 were hospitalized for in funds to be in April, meaning I think there's a value of not getting the vaccine too early.
Obviously, there's a value of not getting it too late.
Yeah.
which you need at least two weeks, two weeks prior.
you'll have your immunity.
That's true.
Yes.
And I think that actually, Phil, that's an impediment.
People say, we hear this a lot.
I'm not getting the flu vaccine because I got the flu from the flu vaccine.
It is not a live vaccine.
There is a live intranasal one, but most people don't get that.
So in general, it's not a live vaccine.
And so it cannot give you the flu, but it can give you a reaction, right?
So there's two reasons for the reaction.
One is it's your body's immune system ramping up.
In the flu vaccine, it's either called the trivalent or the quadrivalent.
It is against the two
Most significant proteins of the flu virus that they use to break through into our cells Namely hemagglutinin and naremides.
That's why you'll see H and N and different types H1 H2 and 1 and 2 And so we it's a bit of a guessing game, right?
And then we several months prior because we're growing these in culture And sometimes those are on eggs We're growing them.
We're trying to match that and so
that's the immunity we want to get.
I forgot your question
oh yeah correct yeah yeah so so the one thing is your body's reaction right you're ramping up an immune response and that can make you you know that releases inflammatory to pro-inflammatory markers sort of boosters to get an immune response that
discomfort usually is a day or two for most people that can take some Tylenol or rest and they're through it.
The other one is a reaction to some of the reagents in the vaccine.
We do not use mercury in vaccines anymore.
That's not there.
That hasn't been for a while.
These are mostly preservative free vaccines.
I think the only ones we stock are preservative free.
But you could react to some other vehicle that's in there and that can lead to a robust local reaction.
In very rare cases, you can get a very serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is very serious.
And that can happen with any vaccine.
That's not unique to the flu vaccine or RSV vaccine.
And that is loss of motor neuron function, usually ascending from the lower extremities.
Not always completely resolving, right?
So there'll be a percentage of weakness.
How common is that?
it's not common at all.
Have I seen it?
I have.
Yeah, I have.
Yeah, I mean, okay, so so yeah, so if you're kind of in that group, that's where I wanted to just pull out some statistics here, because this will help people, I'm just going to give the percentages, right?
So you can decide whether you want to take your chances or not.
So
Targeting high risk population, so in adults over 65, you can reduce your hospitalization rate by somewhere around 30 to 40%.
For people six months to 17 years old, you can reduce your chance of dying by 20%, but keep in mind dying is a rare.
comorbid, you know, rare event with flu, but you reduce it by 20%.
You reduce all severe flu by 20 to 30, more like 30%.
You reduce symptomatic disease in kids under one by about 60%.
So that's a pretty big impact.
The youngest, so there's this strong recommendation for influenza vaccine for six months to 23 months especially because they're more vulnerable to more severe disease.
And then all-comer hospitalization in older adults is reduced by 60%.
So those are the kind of benefits we get.
When people say, how effective is the flu vaccine?
In general, if you look at a 10-year cohort, it reduces the risk of disease and death by 40%.
That's the short answer.
Last year was not a perfect match.
It's never a perfect match, but it was a little worse than usual.
It reduced it by about 33%.
2023 so the 2025 vaccine was slightly less effective 2023 was a really good year.
We were almost 60% but
If you take 10 years, it's about 40% reduction.
think, yeah, I mean, it's a pretty high number.
And the other thing you're talking about, you're talking about lost workdays, lost days in school, if your child is home from school, that means you might be home from work.
So those are the other benefits besides the more serious ones.
Yeah, so there's actually been some some movement on that.
And again, I wanted to just, so this is another, that one I just read to you was influenza vaccine effectiveness and safety for 26-27, and that was a JAMA special communication, just put out September 2nd.
This also just put out September 2nd was effectiveness of the COVID vaccine.
And so again, I'll give you the numbers here.
So let's start with who is most at risk.
So the IDSA, which is the Infectious Disease Society of America, has really focused on the immunocompromised.
So they're saying essentially anybody who's had a transplant, anybody on these rheumatologic drugs, these autoimmune drugs to suppress immune system, get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Because already they don't mount as good a response and we have robust data.
to prevent hospitalization and death for that group.
In fact, the data is most robust for that group.
And so that's why they've confined it to that recommendation.
We know there's community immunity, right?
So here's currently, what can the vaccine do?
I'm sorry.
Let me also, the other high-risk groups are older than 65.
And then anybody, you can think of it, what does COVID-19 do to us?
It causes
mini clots, right?
So anybody at risk of mini clots and the dangers of mini clots.
So older than 65, obese, sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension, these are people who are at higher risk of mini clots.
What does a mini clot cause?
Well, a mini clot can cause a stroke.
A mini clot can cause a pulmonary embolism.
A mini clot can cause a heart attack.
I have seen all three of those complications from getting COVID.
So even though
we're not seeing these respiratory inflammation and death, which is great, right?
Because, you know, COVID just doesn't, quite frankly, doesn't kill people the way it used to.
Thank God.
We're still seeing these complications from clotting.
And then the American College of Cardiology also points out, for people at increased risk of getting age fibrillation, that inflammation from COVID also increases the risk of getting age fibrillation.
So who's at risk for age fibrillation?
Obese, sleep apnea, hypertension.
heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
People who drink alcohol too much.
So those are people who should think about it.
So here's the benefits by the numbers.
So greater than 65 reduces the risk of hospitalization by half.
So that population still gets a benefit.
For pregnant women, it reduces the risk of going to urgent care by 40%.
So take that as you would.
And then if mom gets the vaccine, it cuts the risk of hospitalization for the baby by 50%.
Keep in mind, though, that hospitalization rates for COVID for babies is low.
The biggest benefit for that nine month to four year old is reduction in emergency room visits by 25%.
So you can see the benefit to the 65 and older is
much higher than the benefit to these other groups, but there are those moments.
Here's the big one.
Reduction of 50% in death with immunocompromised people.
That's why IDSA is focusing on that group continuing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Also keep in mind that having had COVID within the last year gives you the same immunity as the vaccine.
And for people who have had COVID multiple times or have had multiple vaccines, particularly more than two, they have pretty good immunity.
heard that.
Yeah, so there was a few high profile cases in teenagers of inflammation of the heart muscle.
COVID itself causes inflammation of the heart muscle at a slightly higher rate than the vaccine did in that group.
So teenage boys more than girls.
However, if a person were to separate out
the first and second vaccine, let's say this is when they're they have no immunity whatsoever, you reduce that risk of heart muscle inflammation, instead of going two months, if you went three to five months, you reduce it almost nothing.
But yeah, there were a few high profile cases.
So so although rare, yes, that was a complication of the vaccine in that age group, you know, and then you notice I didn't list any significant benefits for that age group in getting the vaccine.
So you have to kind of take it as a way I did see one case
of severe global immune inflammation so skid or not not come up immune compromise I can't remember the acronym for it but I did see a case of that where a young man aged 11 got two COVID cases in a row
And so he, but he, so we recognized it, sent him off to children's, he got the treatment, he did fine.
And so the vaccine would have helped him in that case.
Those are rare cases, but there are these rare severe complications of the, excuse me, of the disease.
Yeah, so there's a, there's a brand new antiviral out.
So we have the pack slow of it, right?
And again, if, if, if I'm
it's not recommended for someone who is under 65, you know, over four who's healthy to use this antiviral.
But unless you're around someone who's immunocompromised, then you should take it.
And then you can give prophylaxis to the people who are exposed.
So this new one, I am blanking on the name, but I just read this the other day.
It's antiviral, it's for contacts and people who have it, and it is slightly better
at reducing the illness and preventing you from getting it, then pack slow it.
So we'll see that on the shelves.
The current price tag for that five day course is $1,400.
So I don't think the uptake's gonna be too high until that price comes down.
Well, that's good.
Yeah.
So there are definitely some, you know, we don't have rigorous studies, but we know certain things help.
We know that garlic helps cell mediated immunity.
We know that.
And so that is something a person can have.
The jury is still out on vitamin C and high-dose vitamin C. There doesn't seem to be any harm.
We don't know the benefits.
A lot of us use it and seems to shorten the viral illness, but we don't have robust data to support that.
This might make people sad, but there's no data for echinacea having any significant benefit.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, go ahead and take it.
There's no harm.
But, you know, yeah.
And then similarly for elderberry is another one you sometimes see.
you know,
it's shortening it.
It's well worth it in those cases, especially when
there's no harm.
Yes, I mean there are several, I would say, reliable sources.
I have to say right now the CDC's in flux and several medical organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatricians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and IDSA have come out with their own recommendations, but I don't expect
people to go to all those different sites.
But there is a good site that sort of acts as a clearinghouse for these.
It's a nonprofit.
It's called the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
And they have sort of an evidence based vaccine section.
So that's www.nfid.org.
Let's see.
Well, I always listen to a little bit of bluegrass really in Americana Yes, and then My colleague at work got me listening to Olivia Dean, which I really enjoy her music Wonderful.
Yeah, so so all over the board and then always always classical music I have
exchanged listening to the news in the morning for classical music for the past year and I think that's probably helped more than anything.
I think so too.
while.
Relative to our immune systems, we know that, you know, taking their studies on this, taking a walk in nature will boost your immune system.
Getting the sleep you need, there is no replacement for good sleep in terms of the strength it gives to our immune system.
it?
Right.
So the key is to listen to that country song and maybe have an NA beer.
season.
You