Omicron spread prompts more interest in booster shots than new vaccines

Among vaccinated adults who haven’t had a booster shot, Omicron is 54% more likely to do so, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of the unvaccinated respondents, 12% said that the emergence of the faster-spreading variant would make them more willing to get their first shot.

The US has recently been adding about 1.6 million new vaccine shots per day, up from about 1.4 million before Thanksgiving, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recent doses include boosters and most recently eligible children under the age of 12, making it difficult for people to understand the reasons why they get the shot.

According to the CDC, of ​​Americans 5 or older who are eligible for vaccination, 65.5% are fully vaccinated. About one-third of fully vaccinated adults have received booster shots.

Half of those surveyed in the Kaiser Family Foundation survey – which covered 1065 adults between December 15 and December 20 – said they worried they would become seriously ill from COVID-19. That’s over 30% of those who expressed such concern before the news of the Omicron edition in a similar survey in November. The margin of error in the new survey is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

But nearly half of non-vaccinated respondents said they could not be persuaded to get the shot, no matter what. A report detailing the survey findings quoted a man described as a 23-year-old black woman in Washington, D.C. “I think they’re trying to kill us with a vaccine.” Another man—identified as a 32-year-old—old white woman in North Carolina told researchers, “Jesus himself must come down from heaven and speak to me in person.”

The CDC this week overtook the Delta version, saying that the Omron version caused an estimated 73% of recent COVID-19 cases in the US for the week ending December 18. The CDC said that Omron is now responsible for more than 90% of cases in many parts of the country.

Omicron fears are piling up life in New York City, with residents lining up at COVID testing sites, some restaurants closing and performances being canceled on and off Broadway. Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that the city would offer a $100 incentive if people get a booster shot at the city’s site by December 31.

Anna Hadzimova, a 35-year-old childcare worker who lives in Brooklyn, said she received a booster Friday. “The whole new version is going crazy, so I just want to protect myself and those closest to me,” she said. “I don’t want to take my risk.”

Preliminary findings suggest that Omicron spreads rapidly, evades vaccine-induced antibodies and is more easily reinfected than previous versions of the virus. But evidence shows that booster shots restore some defenses against it.

“Boosters were important earlier. They are more important now,” said Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a recent briefing. Maine has been in a relentless Covid surge that began months ago with the Delta version, and on Tuesday reported the pandemic’s highest hospitalization.

Maine already has one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates, and Omicron is prompting more residents to get the shots, said state CDC spokesman Robert Long.

According to state statistics, about 74% of Maine residents age 5 and older have been fully vaccinated, and more than 424,000 people have received boosters. However, as in many states, vaccination rates are higher in urban and suburban areas than in rural areas.

Maine’s two largest health care systems have added vaccination clinics in the Portland area, Mr Long said, and smaller clinics have been added in rural areas, one of which delivered 271 shots in one day last week in the coastal town of Machias .

Omicron’s fears recently prompted Michelle Alford of Oklahoma City to schedule a vaccination, a move the 49-year-old had avoided procrastinating and because she rarely got sick, she said.

But she tested positive for Covid-19 before her appointment and is now feeling sick and in pain at home. Ms Alford plans to get vaccinated once she makes a full recovery because she doesn’t think the pandemic will go away anytime soon, she said.

“We thought it would die a year ago and here it is, a completely new version,” she said. “It’s nonstop.”

Buddy Creech, director of Vanderbilt University’s Vaccine Research Program in Nashville, Tenn., said he “has had a lot of discussion with my patients and my colleagues about the timing of the booster” as the Omicron version hits the US.

Although Tennessee hasn’t seen a major increase in hospitalizations recently, health workers are concerned it’s only a matter of time, he said. He hoped that people would decide to get a vaccine shot, whether their first shot or a booster, before gathering for holiday events, he said.

Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Tomei said public health officials and hospitals in states where vaccination rates and booster rates are low are preparing themselves for Omicron’s arrival. About 54% of the eligible population in Georgia has been fully vaccinated, and about a quarter of that group has received booster shots, according to federal data.

“We have a long way to go, and I expect this to be an incentive in some paradoxical way” to get the immunizations or boosters, Dr Tommy said.