Updated COVID-19 vaccines are now available: They’re meant to give you the best protection against the strain of the virus that is making people severely sick and also causing deaths. 

Many people were infected during the persistent summer wave, which may leave you wondering when you should get the updated vaccine. The short answer is that it depends on when you last got infected or vaccinated and on your particular level of risk. 

We heard from six experts—including medical doctors and epidemiologists—about when they recommend getting an updated vaccine. Read on to learn what they said. And to make it easy, check out the flowchart below.

If I was infected with COVID-19 this summer, when should I get the updated vaccine?

All the experts we spoke to agreed that if you were infected this summer, you should wait at least three months since you were infected to get vaccinated. 

“Generally, an infection may be protective for about three months,” Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System, tells PGN. “If they got infected three or more months ago, it is a good idea to get vaccinated sooner than later.”

This three-month rule applies if you got vaccinated over the summer, which may be the case for some immunocompromised people, adds Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. 

If I didn’t get infected with COVID-19 this summer, when should I get vaccinated?

Most of the experts we talked to say that if you didn’t get infected with COVID-19 this summer, you should get the vaccine as soon as possible. Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, emphasizes that if this applies to you, you should get vaccinated as soon as possible, especially given the current COVID-19 surge.

Al-Aly agrees. “Vaccine-derived immunity lasts for several months, and it should cover the winter season. Plus, the current vaccine is a KP.2-adapted vaccine, so it will work most optimally against KP.2 and related subvariants [such as] KP.3 that are circulating now,” Al-Aly says. “We don’t know when the virus will mutate to a variant that is not compatible with the KP.2 vaccine.” 

Al-Aly adds that if you’d rather take the protection you can get right now, “It may make more sense to get vaccinated sooner than later.”

This especially applies if you’re over 65 or immunocompromised and you haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccine in a year or more because, as Chin-Hong adds, “that is the group that is being hospitalized and disproportionately dying now.”

Some experts—including epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, author of newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist—also say that if you’re younger than 65 and not immunocompromised, you can consider waiting and aiming to get vaccinated before Halloween to get the best protection in the winter, when we’re likely to experience another wave because of the colder weather, gathering indoors, and the holidays. 

“I am more worried about the winter than the summer, so I would think of October (some time before Halloween) as the ‘Goldilocks moment’—not too early, not too late, but just right,” Chin-Hong adds. Time it “such that your antibodies peak during the winter when COVID-19 cases are expected to exceed what we are seeing this summer.”

My children are starting school—should I get them vaccinated now? 

According to most experts we spoke to, now is a good time to get your children vaccinated. 

Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, adds that “with COVID-19 infection levels as high as they are and increased exposures in school,” now is a particularly good time to get an updated vaccine if people haven’t gotten COVID-19 recently. 

Additionally, respiratory viruses spike when kids are back in school, so “doing everything you can to reduce your child’s risk of infection can help protect families and communities,” says epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera, science communications advisor at the de Beaumont Foundation.

For more information, talk to your health care provider.

(Disclosure: The de Beaumont Foundation is a partner of The Public Good Projects, the organization that owns Public Good News.)

This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Postpartum depression, or PPD, is a debilitating, potentially life-threatening mental health condition that impacts about one in eight people who give birth in the U.S. While it’s normal to feel worried or stressed after becoming a parent, PPD can cause feelings of extreme sadness or anxiety that may lead to suicidal thoughts.

Read on to learn what PPD is, what causes it, how it’s treated, and more.

What is the difference between the baby blues and postpartum depression?

Postpartum blues, or the “baby blues,” impact up to 80 percent of new parents. The baby blues may cause bouts of crying, mood swings, anxiety, sadness, reduced concentration, irritability, changes in appetite, and trouble sleeping, but symptoms are fleeting.

“Baby blues are a transient period—hours to a few days—of emotionality that does not impair one’s functioning or cause severe symptoms like suicidality,” says Dr. Jennifer L. Payne, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia. “[Postpartum depression] can cause severe symptoms, including suicidality.”

In addition to causing more debilitating symptoms, PPD can last for months.

Some new parents also experience postpartum psychosis, which can cause hallucinations and delusions. However, unlike PPD, postpartum psychosis is rare.

What are the symptoms of postpartum depression?

PPD symptoms may include:

• Feeling depressed, irritable, angry, or hopeless
• Severe mood swings
• Difficulty bonding with your baby
• Withdrawing from family and friends
• Changes in appetite or sleeping patterns
• Extreme fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Thoughts of harming yourself or your baby
• Thoughts of death or suicide

If you are experiencing symptoms of PPD, Payne recommends seeking help from a primary care provider or obstetrician right away.

“It’s really important—not just for you, but for your baby,” Payne explains. “Babies exposed to significant PPD have slower language development, lower IQs, and more behavioral problems.”

Your health care provider will ask you a series of screening questions to determine if you are experiencing PPD.

What causes postpartum depression?

Research suggests that the drop in hormones that occurs after birth, genetics, and sleep deprivation may contribute to PPD.

You may be at higher risk of developing PPD if you have a history of mental health conditions like depression or bipolar disorder, have relatives who’ve experienced PPD, or experienced stressful events during or after pregnancy.

How is postpartum depression treated?

“PPD is usually treated with antidepressant medications—typically SSRIs and now with the new FDA-approved medication, zuranolone,” says Payne. Therapy has also been shown to help people manage PPD.

Your health care provider can help determine the best treatment options for you and can outline the risks and benefits of taking certain medications while breastfeeding.

For referrals to care, information about local support groups, and other mental health resources for new parents, call the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline or Postpartum Support International. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Can non-birthing parents have postpartum depression?

New parents who did not give birth, including cisgender men, may experience anxiety, depression, irritability, fatigue, and changes in appetite or sleeping patterns after a partner gives birth.

“Everyone knows that mothers’ hormones change a lot during and after pregnancy,” psychologist Scott Bea said in a 2019 Cleveland Clinic article. “But there’s evidence that fathers also experience real changes in their hormone levels after a baby is born.” 

Adoptive parents may also show similar symptoms.

If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741. For international resources, here is a good place to begin.

This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.