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Getty Images<\/p>\n <\/span> \nAs U.S. public health measures continue to adapt in the face of COVID-19, it seems the country has reached a new phase of the pandemic\u2014one where the virus is taking more of a backseat in daily life. But this new, more relaxed pandemic attitude may also be hindering vaccination efforts.\n<\/p>\n \nThe latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that only about 14.8 million Americans have received an updated booster shot\u2014a number that pales in comparison to the more than 226 million Americans who have completed a primary series of the vaccine, which is still only about 68% of all Americans. \n<\/p>\n \nWith the U.S. lagging so far behind on booster shots, there\u2019s the possibility of a future COVID wave putting a strain on an already fragile healthcare system, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths and costing billions of dollars.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cAs population immunity wanes and new variants capable of evading protection from earlier vaccines and natural infection continue to emerge, surges in hospitalizations and deaths during the upcoming fall and winter are increasingly likely,\u201d according to the authors of a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.\n<\/p>\n \nBut all of that could be avoided. That same report shows that, if up to 80% of eligible adults were to receive their booster shots, the U.S. could prevent about 90,000 deaths from COVID. Ultimately, a more robust vaccination campaign could \u201cavert a surge of hospitalizations and deaths, and save money in the process,\u201d the authors said.\n<\/p>\n \nHere\u2019s where the U.S. currently stands with booster vaccinations, why experts say low rates could be a problem, and how to get more people on board before an expected winter surge in COVID cases.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n CDC Recommends Stronger Flu Shots for Older Americans<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nBivalent vaccines were authorized for all adults on August 31 and have been available ever since, but unlike with past COVID shots, fewer Americans have sought out a new booster vaccine right away. \n<\/p>\n \nA September Vaccine Monitor survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that only about a third of all adults had gotten their bivalent COVID booster or were planning to as soon as they could. For people over 65, that number was closer to half.\n<\/p>\n \nThe KFF survey also showed that there was a lack of knowledge about booster shots in general. One in five people had heard \u201cnothing at all\u201d about the new booster shots, and four in 10 people who are vaccinated said they weren\u2019t sure if the booster was recommended to people like them.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe reason for this could, in part, be attributed to a lack of information about boosters, according to Jill Foster, MD, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School. \n<\/p>\n \nThe logistics of who can get the vaccine or when are much simpler for the bivalent shot than other COVID vaccines in the past, she added. But despite the message's simplicity, the public in large part hasn't acted on it.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n"Unless you just had COVID or just got a shot, go get your booster," Dr. Foster told Health. "I don't think that message has gotten out there."\n<\/p>\n \nJust anecdotally, Dr. Foster added that, compared to the early days of the pandemic, there seems to be less conversation about the new boosters in general, whether that be fewer billboards and TV ads, less advertising about COVID vaccine availability at pharmacies, or just people talking and reading less about the vaccines.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThough booster information may not be as widely publicized, some of the confusion about vaccines could be attributed to those who choose to ignore information about the bivalent booster because they\u2019re truly vaccine hesitant, or feel uncomfortable with getting any kind of COVID shot, explains Mireille Jacobson, PhD, economist at the Davis School of Gerontology and the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. \n<\/p>\n \nThe KFF survey found that 18% of people eligible to get the bivalent vaccine said they wanted to \u201cwait and see\u201d about getting the shot, and another 10% and 12% said they would get it \u201conly if required,\u201d or not at all, respectively.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nBut aside from those who were never vaccinated in the first place or who are explicitly opposed to getting the new vaccine, Jacobson guesses that many of those who haven\u2019t yet gotten the bivalent shot aren\u2019t necessarily vaccine hesitant, but rather just want to put COVID behind them.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cIt's not a strong belief, like \u2018I'm not going to get boosted\u2019 is my sense,\u201d Jacobson told Health. <\/em>\u201cYou definitely don't have that kind of ease that you had at the beginning. And I just think a lot of people are done with it\u2014a lot of people don't go rush out and get their flu shot either, so I see it as a very similar thing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n COVID Is ‘Still Here’: Experts Say Masking This Fall and Winter Is a Good Idea<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nIn addition to a lack of strong messaging about bivalent boosters, it\u2019s just not as simple anymore for people to get a COVID shot, either.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nWhen the original shots were being rolled out, rideshare companies were offering free rides for people to go get a shot, stadiums and gathering spaces were turned into convenient mass vaccination sites, and some employers were mandating vaccination. Most of that has since gone away. \n<\/p>\n \nYet another nudge for vaccines could also be disappearing soon\u2014the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in August that as early as January 2023, the federal government may no longer have the funding to make COVID vaccines free to the public. \n<\/p>\n \nWhether it be that people are, understandably, just tired of hearing about COVID, or the government and media have dropped the ball on spreading the word about the bivalent shots, the end result is the same\u2014the U.S. is behind where it should be on Omicron boosters.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nAnd with the threat of a winter surge, experts are concerned about what may lie ahead.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cI'm very worried about the variants that are currently circulating in Europe,\u201d Dr. Foster said. \u201cThe ones that are in Europe tend to be more evasive of the immune protection that we would give them, from either vaccine or prior infection\u2026everyone is depending on the herd immunity that is not going to be as strong.\u201d\n<\/p>\n New Omicron Booster Side Effects: What to Expect<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n \nThough COVID\u2019s newfound position on the backburner in many people\u2019s lives is likely creating some issues with the bivalent booster rollout, the news isn\u2019t all dire.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nWhile projections from the Commonwealth Fund say that the U.S. is looking at tens of thousands of otherwise preventable COVID deaths if vaccine rates don\u2019t increase before the end of the year, there\u2019s still plenty of time before the end of December 2022 for people to go get their boosters.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThough experts said getting 80% of eligible people boosted with the bivalent vaccine seems unlikely, the Commonwealth Fund\u2019s other projection of 75,000 lives saved with booster rates at pace with those from last year\u2019s flu season could be a more attainable goal.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cPresumably anyone who is amenable to getting a flu shot should be amenable to getting a COVID-like booster,\u201d Saahir Khan, MD, assistant clinical professor of infectious diseases at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, told Health.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n \nAdding back some kind of incentive for people to get bivalent boosters could also be another measure to implement to convince people who aren\u2019t against vaccines to get the shot, Jacobson said. She and her team are currently in the planning stages of an experiment to see if reminders, small financial incentives, or a combination of both might help increase booster rates.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nThe biggest thing is just finding a happy medium between COVID paranoia and ignoring the problem completely, Dr. Khan added.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cPeople are just tired of hearing about it. They sort of have this PTSD thinking that if they start hearing about COVID, that means we're gonna go back to the days of shutdown,\u201d Dr. Khan said. \u201cThere's a middle ground here where maybe we're not going to go back to the days of the early pandemic, but we still need to take precautions and we still need to get vaccinated.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \nTreating the bivalent vaccine more like a flu shot\u2014like linking the two together and advertising both\u2014is probably a good step, Dr. Foster said. \n<\/p>\n \nOther strategies like traditional advertising campaigns\u2014TV ads, social media ads, billboards\u2014and celebrities or officials sharing their experiences with vaccination could also help, Drs. Foster and Khan said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \nIt\u2019s also important to remind people that, in addition to the potential negatives the U.S. could see with stagnant booster rates, an increase would provide myriad benefits. In addition to the tens of thousands of lives saved, more boosters would mean billions of dollars saved in healthcare costs and hospitals that aren\u2019t overrun, and therefore, ones that can provide better care to everybody, Dr. Khan said. Higher rates of bivalent vaccination would also lessen the chance of another variant\u2014potentially more deadly or evasive\u2014cropping up, he added.\n<\/p>\n \n\u201cThe messaging around COVID needs to be a bit more accurate in the sense that this is an endemic disease, and we are going to have to live with it,\u201d Dr. Khan explained. \u201cWe're going to have to adapt to it and getting a booster is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo: Getty Images As U.S. public health measures continue to adapt in the face of COVID-19, it seems the country has reached a new phase of the pandemic\u2014one where the virus is taking more of a backseat in daily life. But this new, more relaxed pandemic attitude may also be hindering vaccination efforts. The latest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,611],"tags":[116,612],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Bivalent Vaccines Slipping Under the Radar\u00a0 <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Harder to Find A Shot, Fewer Incentives to Seek One Out <\/span> <\/h2>\n
Mitigating New Pandemic Attitudes With Good Vaccination Habits <\/span> <\/h2>\n