by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Connecticut’s top public health official rolled up her sleeve to expose her left shoulder and got a shot from a Yale New Haven Health nurse — as part of an emergency-room-adjacent presser about the importance of getting inoculated against influenza, RSV, and Covid.
State Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani received that flu shot, and helped lead that press conference, Thursday morning in the parking lot just outside of Yale New Haven Health Children’s Hospital’s pediatric emergency room at 1 Park St.
Juthani was flanked on Thursday by state Comptroller Sean Scanlon, city Health Director Maritza Bond, state Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, Mayor Justin Elicker, Yale New Haven Hospital President Katherine Heilpern, Yale New Haven Health CEO Chris O’Connor, and Yale pediatric infectious disease doctor Thomas Murray.
The elected officials and public health workers took Thursday’s press conference as an opportunity to urge the public to get vaccinated before the start of cold-weather season and its accompanying respiratory illnesses.
“We have the ability to protect ourselves against seasonal illnesses,” Heilpern said.
Murray said that, last year, Yale New Haven Hospital saw 300 kids hospitalized for RSV, a “very serious infection” that gets less public attention than the flu and Covid.
An email press release sent out by city spokesperson Lenny Speiller and city Health Department spokesperson Becky Rubenstein said that, last year, during the 2024-2025 respiratory illness season, New Haven residents saw 1,678 hospitalizations due to the flu, Covid-19, and RSV, as well as seven deaths due to the flu.
“Immunizations help protect individuals against serious illness, hospitalization and death,” Speiller and Rubenstein wrote. “In addition, the state requires children ages 3 to 4 years old who enrolled in pre-kindergarten to get vaccinated for the flu by December 31 or they cannot return to school.”
Speakers like Murray emphasized on Thursday that there are effective, accessible methods to prevent RSV infection. One such treatment is antibodies for newborns that reduce the risk of infection by 90 percent, and that Yale New Haven Hospital offers to all babies born between October and April. Another is an adult RSV vaccine available for those over the age of 60 as well as for those over the age of 50 who have underlying health conditions.
Juthani said that, since last October, Connecticut saw 49,000 people hospitalized for Covid and 46,000 hospitalized for the flu. At the height of the state’s “triple-demic” of Covid, flu, and RSV in 2022, she said, the state had 1,700 kids hospitalized for RSV.
She encouraged pregnant women to get vaccinated against RSV to help protect their children. Babies can also get vaccinated against RSV after they’re born. “Monoclonal antibody treatment can really protect your child,” she said.
Juthani also encouraged children over the age of six months old, as well as adults of all ages, to get the latest Covid-19 vaccine, following state guidance — if not that being issued out of Washington, D.C.
Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz said that all health insurers in Connecticut are required to cover flu, RSV, and Covid shots through the end of 2026, regardless of whatever vaccine-restricting decisions are issued by the Trump administration. She also praised Gov. Ned Lamont for working with fellow New England governors to ensure that the regions residents have access to accurate information — as well as to the vaccines themselves — about the safety, efficacy, and importance of getting vaccinated.
At the end of the press conference, Juthani, Bysiewicz, Bond, and Elicker took their turns rolling up their respective sleeves and flu shots from YNHH nurse Stephanie Gates.
“I’m really grateful we live in a place where we can trust information on our health,” Elicker said.
Shot time! For Maritza Bond, Justin Elicker, and Susan Bysiewicz. YNHH Prez Heilpern
leads Thursday’s presser.