More Americans are getting their booster shots than people are receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says 21 million people have already received their booster and more than 786,000 are getting them daily.
According to NPR, that is triple the number coming in for their first dose of the vaccine. That may change, say experts, when kids under 12 start getting the recently authorized vaccine for their age group.
While the booster bonanza does not come as a surprise to healthcare experts who point out that those willing to get the first shot are just as eager to ensure continued immunity against the virus, it does mean that vulnerable people will be protected against waning immunity. It also helps prevent severe illness and hospitalization as well reduce transmission of COVID-19.
“I think the folks who are eligible for a booster should get them,” Dr. Robert Wachter, a professor of medicine at UCSF, told NPR. “The data are clear that your immunity wanes and that’s not good for you or good for the community if more people become vulnerable.”
Some critics say that the focus on boosters has detracted from the more important message that people should get their vaccines in the first place. To date, 67% of the population has received at least one shot. But more than 70,000 people are catching COVID-19 and over a thousand are dying every day.
“I think it’s terrible,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “If you look at the people over 12 who come into the intensive care unit at the hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, or the Children’s Hospital, they’re not in the intensive care unit because they didn’t get their third dose, they’re in the intensive care unit because they haven’t gotten any doses.
Dr. Offit calls the frenzy to get boosters “boostermania” ― an unfounded panic caused by the administration which sheds serious doubts on the efficacy of vaccines.
“We need to vaccinate the unvaccinated, not boost the vaccinated,” Offit insisted. Others agree that the push to boost is making the unvaccinated even more reluctant to get their shots, because it appears the science behind the vaccines is not conclusive. Offit suggests that vaccine mandates for those who travel domestically may help push the hesitant population to get vaccinated.
According to The New York Times, even advisors to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration said data show that, with the exception of people over age 65, the vast majority of Americans who are vaccinated are well protected against severe illness and do not need booster shots.
“You can see hesitancy in all of this,” said Offit. When the administration approved the boosters, they may have given the public the impression that two doses do not offer sufficient protection.
“They continue to inadvertently damn the vaccine, when what they should say is, ‘It is remarkable,’” said Offit. “It’s a miracle vaccine.”
Lynn C. Allison ✉
Lynn C. Allison, a Newsmax health reporter, is an award-winning medical journalist and author of more than 30 self-help books.
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