MAC/ Bronchiectasis and guidance on vaccine maintenance?

I am as soon as both my ID & Pulmonologist tell me it’s OK.
I just had a Covid shot the first week of August since we weren’t sure if anything was going to get approved due to what is going on in the federal government It was the old one; but I had gotten my last one in September 2024. The ID doctor believed since COVID was still infecting an uptick of the population, it would be a good idea to get added protection.

I don't think one should view the vaccines as a guarantee against getting Covid. They're really more about decreasing the severity of illness, which can prevent hospitalizations and death. I've had Covid twice - once before vaccines came out (some long covid effects for a year after) and again a year ago. I'd had vaccines and boosters. I was sicker the second time, but just for a week and no long covid effects. Glad I'd had boosters, as I'd tested positive for MAC a few months prior, and had also been treated previously for aspergillos.

As I was reading this I said to my husband that I was bummed out that I'm now considered a high risk for Covid and need to get all the shots. He reminded me that although I've only recently been diagnosed the doc at the Mayo said I've probably had BE for years. Yet I sailed through covid, got it 3 times, having only the mandated first shot and booster and never get a flu or pneumonia shot. Not sure how I feel about getting all the shots this year.

We had a long conversation with my daughter who is a former ER nurse and a Master in Nursing student. Her PT job while in school is as a pharmacy nurse, where she does med counseling and vaccinations.

She is still in close touch with her former colleagues, and would like everyone to know that they are telling her RSV is no joke - people can get VERY sick from it. Especially those with lung conditions.

I had Covid last year, and it was no fun - not a candidate for Paxlovid so I had to push through and ended up with an exacerbation. When I told my pulmonologist I didn't know if the vaccine was worth it she asked "Who can tell us how sick you might have been without it?"

My daughter said the medical director for their pharmacy and the ID docs at her old hospital recommend that people consider getting a different Covid vaccine than their "usual" - we will be getting Novavax (non-MRNA) this year.

We will have the Covid & hi-dose flu vaccine before we take off traveling in September. The jury is still out on whether we need an RSV "booster" - neither my daughter nor my doc has the answer yet.

So confusing.
I have had the first two Covid vaccines given in 2021.
No flu, pneumonia, exacerbation, no RSV, no cold etc. in recent years nor for several years or decades.
Yes to Covid in Feb. 2024 after going to Pulmonary Rehab at local hospital facility. I came down with Covid after three half hour sessions in the facility. No one in the rehab facility wore a mask and I was concerned but thought I guess they know what they are doing, it's a hospital facility. The rehab sessions was the only thing I did differently since learning I had BE and our living with the Covid outbreaks.
No Covid or any other type of illness (RSV, flu, cold etc.) since Feb. of 2024.
I wear a mask all the time when out in public. Get a bit nervous the few times I have gone out to a restaurant. I try to position myself away from people...distance myself....... especially with having to take the mask off, of course. I have to assume the mask, N95 by 3M, is helping.
The last vaccines I had were the RSV and shingles vaccines, that's it. I will get the RSV again this October.
Also, when I had Covid I only took the Paxlovid for a day or two because I felt better within twenty four hours after having started it.
I am thankful that I have felt fine for years which is great due to obviously having had BE since 2022 or earlier....very possibly had BE since 2015 when I was told I had large lungs after an Xray before hip replacement and at that time I was already needing to clear my throat of a green 'mucus plug' every so often during a week's period.
This goes to show us, again, that we are all different due to multiple factors.
Barbara

Every BE/NTM expert I have heard speak on the subject says to get all the vaccines. Covid, flu, pneumonia, RSV (if available). Many people die annually of these infections. Everyone thinks not them. What distinguishes you from them? And being at heightened risk due to BE/NTM, really ask yourself, why not me? My husband got H1N1 in his 40’s and it was one of the scariest things we have ever been through, he got so incredibly ill. So unexpected. He was young, no risk factors. He had not gotten a flu vaccine, felt they were unnecessary. I assure you neither one of us has skipped the flu shot since. Vaccines save lives. Maybe yours.

Yes, I really don't understand the resistance to science (vaccines). Perhaps with some it is the fact that unless it "hits home" as it did in your case they just don't get it. Look at measles which has risen to rates not seen in this country in decades. I guess people forget the refrigerator trucks outside large urban area hospitals for the dead during Covid.

Does alternating between Moderna and Pfizer count?

The advice was to alternate between MRNA and traditional vaccine, so I would guess not. However, we don't all have the same access to different vaccines. In the past, we always alternated between those two. This year our pharmacy is adding Novavax for the first time.

I don’t know, but I know some patients ask for one and the 2nd one a different etc