Mandy Oaklander | September 21, 2026

Tomorrow is the first day of fall, which puts us solidly in shots season. For older adults, there are two relative newcomers on the shot block: RSV vaccines, which were designed to keep seniors safe from the worst effects of respiratory syncytial virus. RSV kills thousands of older U.S. adults each year and hospitalizes many more.

The currently available RSV vaccines are 80% effective against these bad outcomes, finds a new study that Veronique Greenwood covered today for TIME. “That’s a huge number,” she tells me. Read on for an even bigger number that gives scientists confidence in the results.

TODAY’S TOPICS

An exercise throwback
The “kissing disease” and MS
A huge reason to get your RSV vaccine

QUICK CHAT

Move like a kid again

I recently interviewed Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a Harvard physician who studies stress, and somehow we ended up reminiscing about monkey bars, hula hoops, and all the ways we used to move our bodies without calling it “exercise.” Then Nerurkar casually revealed that she once kept a hula hoop in her office at Harvard Medical School so she could use it between meetings. At that point, obviously, I had questions. —Angela Haupt, Editor, Health & Wellness

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Stas_V—Getty Images

Hold on—you kept a hula hoop in your office at Harvard?

I did! One of my colleagues had one, and then I got one because of her. A few of us had hula hoops in our offices. In between meetings, you could just pick one up and move your body for a little while.

What do you like about bringing back the ways we moved as kids?

I think anything that gets you out of your head and moving your body in different ways can be helpful—especially because so many of us do such cerebral work. And there’s something about finding joy in movement.

Why do you think childhood is a good place to look for movement we might actually enjoy?

There’s this idea: What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Therein lies your bliss. I remember monkey bars so clearly. A friend had a bar at her house, and her dad used it, too. Now I’m bringing it back in my own house.

And you actually ordered a bar after reading about hanging?

Immediately! I sent it to my husband and said, “We’re getting a bar.” He was like, “Oh, great. We have a vibration plate. We have a trampoline, a rebounder…” And I was like, “Yes, we’re all going to hang from it.” We’re going back to the ’80s.

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TODAY I LEARNED

Scientists link reactivation of the “kissing virus” to flare-ups of MS

Computer illustration of Epstein-Barr virus. Dr_Microbe—Getty Images

In a recent paper in Nature Medicine, scientists looking at patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) found signs that in the months before a relapse, the pathogen behind mononucleosis, the Epstein-Barr virus, had been active.

After an initial bout of mono is over, EBV takes up residence in our cells and can re-emerge periodically. Scientists suspect that EBV activation may be involved in the development of other diseases—including, perhaps, Long COVID. —Veronique Greenwood, Staff Writer

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BIG NUMBER

14.8 million

That’s how many seniors were included in the new study about RSV vaccine efficacy. It’s the largest study ever on the vaccines, which gives scientists confidence that the RSV shots provide excellent protection against hospitalization and death from the virus in this age group. –V.G.

SOURCE: JAMA Network Open

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WHAT WE’RE READING

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Healthy young men in Texas are getting a mysterious form of a dangerous kidney disease. Carrie Arnold at Texas Monthly explores why.
Body odor doesn't always disappear after a shower. Sometimes, it’s chronic. Elle Hunt wrote about the little-understood condition for the Guardian.