As New Covid Boosters Move Forward, Better Outreach is Needed to Save US Lives

By Lily MeyersohnNEW YORK, Sep 9 2022 (IPS) This week––nearly ten months after the emergence of the Omicron variant––the United States is rolling out Covid-19 booster vaccines that specifically target newer, now-dominant strains of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that 209 million Americans over the age of 12, or 74 percent of that population, will be eligible for the shots. Unfortunately, the last year and a half are a stark reminder that it takes much more than even the miracle of “lightning speed” science to ensure widespread vaccination in this country. In late July, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the share of people living in counties designated by the CDC’s guidelines as medium or high risk had grown significantly due to the spread of the BA.5 variant. At that time, 87 percent of the entire population lived in a medium or high risk area. KFF estimated that the number of people living in those counties who were not up to date on their Covid-19 vaccinations had also jumped––to 198 million. This jump represented a 65 percent increase since the start of June alone. Despite that data, many Americans have nonetheless accepted a faulty narrative that assumes that high-risk Americans are already safely vaccinated and boosted. Older Americans, in particular, have widely been considered “all set.” But Benjy Renton, a researcher on Covid-19 vaccine delivery, notes that although older people were prio...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: COVID-19 Featured Global Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news