How it started: About a month ago, the Director for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, publicized the fact she received a covid booster shot. This was done to promote the annual use of boosters by Americans during the fall influenza vaccination season.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who tested positive Friday night, is “experiencing mild symptoms,” according to a release posted to social media. “She is isolating at home and will participate in her planned meetings virtually.”On Sept. 22, Walensky tweeted a picture of herself getting jabbed with an updated version of the COVID-19 shot, along with a message urging others to follow her lead.“Laboratory data suggest these updated vaccines provide increased protection against currently circulating variants,” she promised.
As the number of celebrities, media members, and politicians who promoted the vaccine mandates and pushed the boosters contract some variant of covid, interest in the boosters is plummeting.
Less than 4% of Americans eligible to receive a booster have gotten one.
At least 7.6 million people have received an updated Covid booster since the start of September, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number represents around 3.6% of people currently eligible to receive the shots in the U.S….The CDC signed off on updated versions of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s booster shots on Sept. 1, and pharmacies and other vaccination sites began administering the new shots around Labor Day weekend. The bivalent shots target both the original coronavirus strain and the currently circulating omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.Dr. Scott Roberts, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, said the relatively low booster uptake was “demoralizing.””I would expect a much higher proportion of Americans to have gotten the booster by this point,” he said.
Interest in the vaccines is collapsing among the elderly who represent the highest risk group for serious outcomes during covid infections.
Although Americans over 65 remain the demographic most likely to have received the original series of vaccinations, at 92 percent, their interest in keeping their vaccinations up-to-date is steadily declining, data from the C.D.C. shows. To date, about 71 percent have received the first recommended booster, but only about 44 percent have received the second.Younger people have also been less likely to receive boosters than the original vaccinations, and only about one-third of people of all ages have received any booster, The New York Times vaccine tracker indicates. But seniors, who constitute 16 percent of the population, are more vulnerable to the virus’s effects, accounting for three-quarters of the nation’s 1.1 million deaths.
I believe this is part of the push to make covid vaccines part of the childhood schedule: There is inventory to move. I discuss this point, and other related topics, during a recent episode of Canto Talk.
In response, it appears price hikes for the booster vaccines are being considered to address the fact that reality is not meeting expectations.
With most Americans delaying or skipping new COVID-19 booster shots, analysts and investors are now predicting far fewer will be given each year, pushing the number of shots well below annual flu vaccinations.With fewer shots needed, vaccine makers including Pfizer Inc , partner BioNTech SE , rival Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and Novavax Inc (NVAX.O) could have to hike prices as much as three times current levels if they hope to meet Wall Street revenue forecasts for the shots for 2023 and beyond, several analysts said.
The price hike would be the perfect cherry of failure upon the massive ice cream sundae of covid policy disaster.
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