Coronavirus vaccine demand grows in U.S. amid omicron variant concerns, booster eligibility expansion

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Mon, 2021-12-06 11:48 — mike kraft

Coronavirus vaccine demand grows in U.S. amid omicron variant concerns, booster eligibility expansion Some retail pharmacies, which are distributing the majority of coronavirus vaccines in the United States, report struggling to cope with the uptick in demand amid labor shortages. Annabelle Timsit Washington Post

Demand for coronavirus vaccines has spiked in the United States in recent weeks, as more Americans are eligible for booster shots and concerns grow over the omicron variant.

Health-care providers administered 2.18 million doses of coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the “highest single-day total since May,” the White House said. According to the latest CDC report, over the week ending on Thursday, the average number of daily administered vaccine doses reported to the agency was 22 percent higher than the previous week.

Since omicron was first confirmed in southern Africa on Nov. 25, and soon after listed as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, the Biden administration has been urging as many Americans as possible to get booster shots as the best means to protect themselves against it. All U.S. adults became eligible for boosters on Nov. 19. ...

omicron “may be the ‘boost’ to help the unvaccinated and the newly eligible to get motivated and vaccinated quickly,” said Scott Ratzan, a health communication expert at CUNY School of Public Health, in an email to The Washington Post.

Increased interest in vaccines can be attributed in part to clearer, concerted messaging around boosters coming from public health agencies, Jha said. There now exists “a broad consensus” among experts, he added, that boosters are needed, and “that’s helping a lot.”

While the uptake in booster doses is encouraging, “I am not seeing a ton of progress among [unvaccinated] adults who have been eligible for a long time,” Jha said. “A lot of people in America are relying on infection-induced immunity to get them through the rest of this pandemic, and I think omicron is going to test that in a way that nothing else has. I’m worried we’re going to see a lot of those people who’ve previously been infected and recovered get reinfected and potentially very sick.” ...

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