FRIDAY, Sept. 23, 2022 (HealthDay News) — At least 4.4 million Americans have received an updated vaccine against COVID-19.
This was reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention count On Thursday, health experts condemned President Joe Biden’s televised announcement that the “pandemic is over.”
The White House estimates that more than 5 million people have actually received rehabilitation, accounting for the backlog in government reporting. Associated Press.
Health officials expect demand for the new booster to increase in the next few weeks.
“We’ve been thinking and talking about it like an annual vaccine, like a flu vaccine,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. “The flu vaccine season starts in late September and early October. We’re just getting ours educational company is going So we expect that even though it was a strong start, we actually expect it to be stronger.”
While some Americans rolled up their sleeves as soon as the new boosters became available, others are waiting because they recently had COVID or received a booster late in the summer. This is in line with public health advice.
Others may take pictures closer to holiday gatherings and winter months.
Still others may hope to choose Modern booster over Art Pfizer shot Both companies have created bivalent vaccines targeting both the original and recent strains of COVID Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
Some pharmacies have canceled orders for Moderna’s booster because of a temporary shortage while state regulators finish testing and approving lots of the vaccine. AP noted.
“If we start to see a big increase in cases, I think we’ll see a lot of people get it [new COVID] vaccine,” said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The US has ordered 171 million doses of the new boosters for Americans AP reported. It is too early to tell if demand will match this.
Earlier accelerators were not as widespread as health experts had hoped.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s top medical adviser, told a panel of biosecurity experts that he was concerned that half of vaccinated Americans never received a booster.
“There is a vulnerability in our population that will continue to keep us in a mode of potential disruption of our public order,” he said. “I think we have to do better as a nation.”
But some Americans were more than impatient with the updated vaccine, an interview with Associated Press revealed.
“Give me all the science you can,” said Jeff Westling, 30, a Washington, D.C., attorney who received both a COVID booster and a flu shot, one in each arm, on Tuesday. He practices martial arts jiu-jitsu and wants to protect himself from infections that can come from close contact. “I have no problem trusting people whose job it is to look at the evidence,” he said. AP.
Jeannie Murphy, 69, of Shawnee, Kansas, plans to get a new booster after minor surgery. The retired hospital chaplain said she’s seen a lot of interest among her neighbors in the Nextdoor app.
“There’s quite a bit of discussion going on between people who are willing to make appointments,” Murphy said. “I am encouraged by this. For every skeptic, there are 10-12 people who will jump up and say, “You’re crazy. You just need to go get the shot.’
New York photographer Vivienne Guqua, 44, has already received her new booster, even though she received the first two Moderna shots and no other booster. Gucwa contracted COVID twice, once before vaccines were available and the second time in May.
“When I saw that the new booster could handle the Omicron variant, I thought, ‘I’m doing it,'” Gukwa said. “I don’t want to deal with Omicron again. I was thrilled to upgrade the amps.”
Mixed messaging can be confusing AP reported.
On CBS’ 60 Minutes Sunday, Biden made comments about the pandemic that were widely repeated on social media.
“We still have a problem with COVID. We are still working on it a lot. But the pandemic is over,” said Biden. “If you notice, nobody’s wearing a mask. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think that’s changing.”
Biden later backtracked, saying the pandemic was “not where it was.”
Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C., said AP The president’s comment adds to the public confusion. He said people aren’t sure when it’s time to get a raise, or even where to find out.
“Anytime you get mixed messages, it hurts public health efforts,” Michaud said. “Mixed messages from the president’s statements make this job much more difficult.”
University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi worries that Biden’s comments could stall prevention efforts.
“This soundbite has been around for a while and will spread like wildfire. And it will give the impression that, “Oh, we don’t have to do anything else,” Salemi said.
“If we’re happy with 400-500 people dying from COVID every day, there’s a problem with that,” he said. “We absolutely can do better because most of these deaths, if not all of them, are completely preventable with the tools that we have.”
Additional information
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more Accelerators of COVID-19.
SOURCE: Associated Press