Agent K
Senior Member
A boost for boosters.
Article: ‘Pandemic of the unboosted’: low US Covid jab uptake piles pressure on hospitals
Almost half of the US Covid-19 hospitalisations this winter could have been averted if the country had matched the vaccination coverage of leading European countries, according to a Financial Times analysis of the Omicron variant’s impact on either side of the Atlantic.
Peter Hotez, professor of virology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said, “Biden is right when he says we’re facing a pandemic of the unvaccinated — but it’s also now becoming a pandemic of the unboosted.”
Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research and Translational Institute, agreed. “If I were to really pin down the reasons for the really deplorable US situation, which is at the early stage of turning around, I would say [the low booster rate is] very high on the list,” he said.
As Omicron proliferated in late December, the US was belatedly closing the gap on its European peers in terms of first doses, but a lackluster booster campaign presented new problems. On December 20, 30 per cent of people in the US over-65 had gone six months since receiving a second dose, compared with just two per cent in Portugal; five per cent in England; and seven per cent in Denmark.