Rx4Prevention

12/31/2025

We agree!

Think fruitcake is bad? Flu is much worse. Help protect yourself and your loved ones this holiday season and to .

Learn more at www.nfid.org/flu

12/27/2025

Welcome to the final Science Friday of 2025, "Flu shots and viral mutation."

As snowflakes fell and holiday celebrations began this month, we also saw the arrival of a new, highly contagious, and aggressive mutation of influenza, "subclade K."

It's worth asking if vaccination remains our best defense, given the nature of viruses to mutate quickly.

Yes, it is! Although the vaccine might not be an exact match for the current virus, it still helps prepare the immune system to respond to infection better than if a person hadn't been vaccinated. Here's why:

· Vaccines trigger antibodies to target HA proteins and block the virus from entering cells.

· Vaccination boosts the immune system's memory, letting it recognize and combat viruses more rapidly if exposed.

· Yearly vaccines are designed to protect against the most prevalent and anticipated strains, providing a solid armor even when the virus drifts.

· By lessening the initial infection, vaccines lower the risk of nasty complications like pneumonia and reduce the severity of symptoms such as high fever.

Didn’t get your flu shot? It’s not too late! Within 2 weeks, you’ll be up to full immunity for the rest of what looks to be a severe flu season.

12/20/2025

It's Science Friday at Rx4Prevention. Today, let's do a few Q & A's about RSV vaccines.

Q: When was the RSV vaccine introduced?
A: It was released in 2023.

Q: What is RSV anyhow, and is it serious?
A: Respiratory syncytial virus infects the nose, throat, and lungs; it’s hard to distinguish from a cold, flu or COVID. RSV is responsible for about 100,000 to150,000 hospitalizations and 4,000-8,000 deaths per year among people 60 or older.

Q: What is the vaccine's impact?
A: It’s significant! New research on seniors shows vaccination reduced the risk of RSV hospitalization by 58 percent: 69 percent in the first year after vaccination and 48 percent in the second.

Q: Does that mean the vaccine should be repeated each year?
A: In short: not necessarily. Scientists know vaccine effectiveness wanes over time, but don’t yet understand if re-dosing the vaccine maintains protection longer, or if annually is the ideal time interval. Researchers are currently working on that very question.

12/15/2025

Vaccines are incredibly powerful tools for preventing disease!

What do aspirin, childhood cancer drugs, and the smallpox have in common?

They are all rooted in traditional medicine (TM) and knowledge—just like 40% of pharmaceutical products today.

History has paved the way for modern discoveries, and advancements in the field of TM can open new frontiers of knowledge.

Learn more about the history of smallpox: https://bit.ly/4q1ZUHu

12/13/2025

Science Friday explores: Our best shot to control epidemics?

In efforts to contain disease outbreaks and save lives, public health experts have plenty of considerations to manage. They need to balance:
• minimizing deaths
• reducing infections for the elderly / those with pre-existing conditions
• possibly prioritizing essential workers
• tracking illness and immunity patterns
• evaluating how well vaccinations work

It’s a mind-boggling challenge, but fortunately, new computer modeling developed by scientists in Hong Kong balances factors to drive optimal decisions.

It all comes down to the math.

Bravo to researchers creating new models that enable adaptable, data-based strategies. Their innovations can continually assess which groups should be vaccinated to achieve the best health outcomes for as many people as possible.

12/12/2025

Another Rx4Prevention semi-annual meeting and holiday cheer in the books. Holy jingle bells, we love being together!

12/10/2025

Because we believe in the super-powers of vaccines, we're celebrating National Influenza Awareness Week and reflecting (kinda proudly) on the thousands of flu shots Rx4Prevention administered this fall.

12/06/2025

It's another Science Friday at Rx4Prevention. This week: Looking back – & forward – at COVID vaccines

It was a chaotic time. COVID-19 swept around the world, the unknown virus attacking our bodies leaving us wondering: when will it end? Over 7 million people died, communities isolated, and scientists scrambled to develop an effective vaccine.

With vaccines in place and the pandemic in our rearview mirror, a team of Northwestern University scientists placed the three major COVID-19 vaccine subtypes (adenovirus-based, mRNA, and protein-based) under the microscope. Which best triggers immune responses and maintains protection?

“All worked (against COVID),” said the study’s senior author, “but we didn’t have a clear and rigorous side-by-side comparison of how they differ in the way they trigger the immune system. This study was designed to fill that gap.”

The team found a patchwork of characteristics when comparing vaccines. “The context matters,” he explained. “Adenovirus vaccines may be great in situations for more sustained antigen expression and cheap and quick, one-shot protection, but only in people without preexisting immunity to the vector. However, mRNA vaccines could be better for booster strategies and in people who might already have been exposed to adenoviruses.”

The team intends to apply their insights to creating vaccines for other diseases, especially HIV, which remains “one of the hardest viruses to vaccinate against.”

11/29/2025

It's Science Friday at Rx4Prevention. Today's topic: mRNA flu vaccine shows promise, but…

Although a quadrivalent modified mRNA flu vaccine proved to work better than the standard inactivated flu vaccine, don’t anticipate a cutting-edge flu shot any time soon.

Here’s the backstory. Researchers compared two groups: one received the common quadrivalent flu vaccine, while the other got the mRNA counterpart. Scientists convincingly found that the mRNA vaccine gave 34.5 percent better protection against H1N1 and H3N2 influenza.

In addition to being more effective, the mRNA vaccine can be developed rapidly. The current method of choosing flu vaccine strains months ahead and producing them in eggs can cause mismatches with circulating viruses. In contrast, mRNA flu vaccines could be made in 6-8 weeks, as shown with COVID-19.

Unfortunately, the study's results coincide with the federal government's choice to end mRNA vaccine research funding.

One researcher observed that pharmaceutical companies might be worried that there's no path forward to FDA approval because it's an mRNA-based vaccine. “They're not going to invest additional millions of dollars just to be told, 'You started with the wrong material, and it's not going to be approved.'"

11/28/2025

We are grateful for amazing staff members in senior centers who facilitate Rx4Prevention's on-site vaccine clinics. Your efforts keep the elderly safe from preventable illnesses!

11/27/2025

We're incredibly thankful for our community partners, such as the Coralville Community Food Pantry and Johnson County Health and Human Services. Our relationships help make sure EVERYONE gets the vaccines they need to stay safe.

11/26/2025

We're thankful for our clients. And sometimes -- even though vaccinations are a serious business -- they make us laugh. Love that totebag!