As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations creep up during a summer wave of heightened virus activity, updated vaccines are still likely weeks away.
Why it matters:
- Americans have largely tuned out COVID, but the latest COVID uptick is a reminder that the virus continues to circulate and mutate — though the threat is far below pandemic-era levels.
- Health officials face a challenge convincing a pandemic-fatigued public to get an updated COVID shot, as vaccine uptake has declined with each successive booster.
Honestly, the HHS needs to stop referring to this as a pandemic and call it an endemic and treat this like a flu and get a cadence going for biannual boosters and reminders of covid and flu seasons.
Like our or not but most scientists seem to agree that this sucker is going to be endemic and the faster we move to that reality, the better.
We don’t get flu shots biannually though, is there a reason to do COVID boosters that way? I was under the impression we need them annually, or is that just because of the quick evolution of new variants?