Unfortunately, you may not have heard it.
We now have Covid vaccine boosters updated to fight the latest variants. The last time vaccines matched the circulating strain, early in the pandemic, they were 90 to 95 percent successful in preventing infections. Immunologists say these new boosters will also likely provide greater protection against future variants and may even help to prevent long Covid. |
So why have so few people heard about them or gotten them? It's because the new shots are getting too little fanfare and too much unfounded skepticism. While many immunologists explained to me why these boosters are so good, we're still seeing a problem that has plagued our pandemic response from the beginning: pundits and even medical doctors worrying about how the public will react to imperfections and shortcomings (whether real or perceived), rather than just providing people with good information and making it easy to get vaccinated. |
Last year, new boosters were immediately undermined by pundits and doctors questioning their usefulness and by confusion among members of the public about who should get them. Tragically for those who didn't get the boosters — as many immunologists emphasized at the time — they were really useful. Places where the rollouts were a smoother, less controversial process, like Europe and Canada, ended up having much lower death rates from the Omicron wave than the United States, where only a third of adults got boosted. |
As we've seen, it's vaccination, not just vaccines, that saves lives, and lives won't be saved if boosters remain in storage as a confused public tries to make sense of conflicting messages. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
How does climate change exacerbate other global challenges? With the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly opening in New York this September, we invite you to investigate the nexus between climate change and many critical international issues. Join us tomorrow in New York or online, and help bring climate change back to the top of the agenda. Get Tickets here. |
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