Interest in booster shots is waning, and just 40% of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The average number of booster shots dispensed per day in the U.S. declined from 1 million in early December to less than half of that number last week.
Initial vaccinations also have leveled off. Less than two-thirds – 63% – of Americans are fully vaccinated with the initial rounds of shots, while Wyoming, Idaho, Mississippi and Alabama have vaccinations rates below 50%.
And a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that Americans are more likely to see those jabs – rather than a booster – as essential.
“It’s clear that the booster effort is falling short,” said Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University.
Also in the news:
►Two members of Norway’s women’s cross-country ski squad have tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics, the team said Wednesday. It was uncertain whether Heidi Weng and Anne Kjersti Kalvå will participate in the Games.
►Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, joined the long list of lawmakers who have announced positive COVID tests. Both described their infections as breakthrough cases.
►California showed signs of turning the corner on the omicron wave, with infection rates falling and hospitalizations well short of the overwhelming deluge officials feared a few weeks ago.
📈Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 72 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 871,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 357 million cases and over 5.6 million deaths. More than 210 million Americans — 63.5% — are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
📘What we’re reading: Free masks are on the way to pharmacies. Here’s when N95 masks can be picked up at stores.
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Kansas considers easing ivermectin restrictions
The Kansas Senate is considering a bill making it easier for doctors to prescribe ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. The bill would also require pharmacists to fill such prescriptions, even if they believe the drugs would be dangerous for patients. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned against using the drugs for COVID-19, Kansas joins Indiana, Iowa and a handful of other states considering bills to shield doctors from legal liability and board discipline for prescribing the drugs.
“This is politics, unfortunately, and not health care,” said Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System. “And when politics gets involved in health care, it kind of gets a little messy.”
– Jason Tidd, Topeka Capital-Journal
Study shows omicron really isn’t as severe as other virus versions
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that although the omicron variant has shattered COVID-19 case and hospitalization records, other factors have shown it’s still less severe than other waves in the pandemic. The highly contagious variant has pushed the U.S. to break 1 million cases in a day multiple times and the pace of reported deaths is currently above 15,000 per week.
But despite omicron seeing the highest reported numbers of hospitalizations during the pandemic, the ratio of emergency department visits and hospitalizations to case numbers were actually lower compared to the COVID-19 waves from the delta variant and during winter 2020–21, the study says. Intensive care unit admission, length of stay, and in-hospital deaths were all lower during omicron, the CDC report says, likely in part due to vaccinations and booster shots.
Omicron’s new variant cousin has arrived in the US
Don’t panic yet, experts say.
Unlike two years ago when everyone was first learning about COVID-19, there are now many tools to combat the disease, and, like its cousin, omicron BA.2 is expected to remain relatively mild.
“I don’t think it’s going to cause the degree of chaos and disruption, morbidity and mortality that BA.1 did,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re going to continue to move to a better place and, hopefully, one where each new variant on the horizon isn’t news.”
While COVID-19 cases have begun to decline in places like Massachusetts, where omicron hit hard late last year, cases of BA.2 are on the rise in the Philippines, India, Denmark and South Africa, Lemieux said. Cases have been reported in the United States, too – so far in California, New Mexico, Texas and Washington state.
It’s not clear yet whether BA.2 is pushing out the original omicron variant, now referred to as BA.1, he said.
— Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daily booster shots now half of December totals: COVID Updates