Updated COVID-19 booster shots don’t seem to be at the forefront of other people’s considerations, even as the fall surge heads to the U. S. U. S. It’s even hard to know how many more people are getting vaccinated.
As of Monday morning, neither the COVID-19 boards for New York nor New Jersey showed the number of bivalent boosters, which are designed to combat new coronavirus variants. And this despite the fact that bivalents have become the reference reminder for over 12s almost two months ago, on September 2.
New York officials said the town distributed 476,221 bivalent doses last Wednesday, while 579,977 were administered in New Jersey. Doses are represented: about 12,000 on site.
Officials said so because their boards weren’t up to date.
“The booster information on our site does not come with bivalent doses,” Patrick Gallahue, a spokesman for the New York Department of Health, said by email. “Updates will be made to load bivalent numbers, but this is still a work in progress. “
“Lately, the dashboard reflects previous recall and additional doses for immunocompromised people, etc. ,” said Nancy Kearney, deputy director of communications for the New Jersey Department of Health. “Updated booster doses will be added shortly. “
This knowledge is valuable because it can convey the general interest in shots and spaces that are likely to be endangered as new variants emerge.
His absence also reflects a broader trend that other people are no longer sure whether they deserve to continue worrying about COVID-19, fitness experts said.
They said COVID-19 messages have necessarily evaporated in the run-up to the midterm elections, even though the virus has killed 239,000 Americans so far this year. Half of eligible adults said in surveys they didn’t even know why they needed the reminders. .
“A lot of other people seem to have evolved,” said Lunna Lopes, principal survey analyst at the nonprofit KFF, which conducts monthly national vaccine surveys.
“A lot is happening right now in terms of elections, the war in Ukraine and the economy. COVID as it provides in people’s lives.
But that could soon replace COVID-19 deaths overseas, in part due to new emerging variants. Experts said a further backlog of cases here is inevitable and that hospitalizations are already popping up in parts of New York.
The extent of the outbreak will depend on people’s immunity, acquired through very recent infections or through vaccination. A majority of Americans, 65 percent in a recent ISPOS vote, no longer need mandates, and recent studies show that such requirements would likely not be to motivate booster vaccination rates.
While part of a million bivalent boosters in the first 47 days of deployment may seem like a lot, this progress is minimal compared to the initial booster rollout a year ago. During the same period, after the CDC opened eligibility to all adults in mid-November 2021, nearly 1. 5 million people took booster doses in New York City. In New Jersey, 1. 2 million.
Another way of thinking: Only 7% to 8% of the eligible population has earned double withdrawals in New York and New Jersey since early September.
“I’m not surprised, given frankly, how quiet the rollout has been. It didn’t have the brilliance of previous rollouts,” said Dr. Katherine Milkman, a professor and behavioral scientist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She studies how psychology can be used to motivate smart social behaviors, like getting vaccinated.
She and other researchers said the low use of bivalent boosters is due to a lack of transparent explanations for why shots remain that way, as well as the fact that other people feel less urgency about COVID-19.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, for example, spoke in information systems and press briefings about how bivalent boosters can provide a few months of coverage instead of infection. The updated plans point to two offshoots of the omicron variant that ruled this summer, known as BA. 4 and BA. 5, as well as the original strain of the virus. This increase in immunity, in turn, can slow the spread of the virus and the dangers of seriously harming at-risk groups, such as others over 50 or others with pre-existing conditions, as Gothamist reported in the past.
“We have emerging vaccination sites, cell phones serving vulnerable New Yorkers, home vaccinations for eligible New Yorkers, and the Department of Health is rolling out its network networks to get reinforcements in our city,” Gallahue added. “We also actively publish advertising campaigns. “
But the parallel messages don’t come from federal leaders, and it shows.
A KFF survey conducted in mid-September, about two weeks after the federal government issued its advice, found that two out of five fully vaccinated adults knew whether to take bivalent vaccines.
KFF reported that the length of this knowledge hole remained stable across all age groups, but was greater in rural areas and among other people of color. In general, a portion of all adults knew little or nothing about updated reinforcements.
During the pandemic, Europe and the United Kingdom issued an early warning about COVID-19 outbreaks in the United States.
“We’ve noticed time and time again that what happens in Europe tends to happen in the U. S. “In the U. S. , maybe 4 to 6 weeks later,” Dr. Bruce Y said. Lee, public fitness policy expert at CUNY and executive director of research. . phicor group.
In England, reported cases began to rise about two months ago, from a low average of 3400 infections in expired August to 8900 in early October.
A stop to watch the National Covid Memorial Wall on October 7, 2022 in London, England.
Just at the right time, hospitalizations rose in England to 1,200 a day, already about half the peak in micron degrees seen in January. The death rate, 117 on average per day, is double that of early September. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has reported similar patterns across the continent, adding in France and Germany.
While cases in England occur in all adult age groups, recent deaths are basically occurring in other people over 50, probably because their immunity is eroding more rapidly.
Lee said the fear is that Europe will also see those trends manifest sooner than expected in the year.
“If you looked at the last two years, November 2020 and November 2021, that’s when you saw an increase in COVID-19. That’s when things, the cases, started to get better,” Lee said.
The answer depends on when COVID-19 got stuck this year, given the makeup of the variants that are causing disruption right now.
Every coronavirus circulating lately is necessarily just a shadow of the omicron variant that appeared last November. Remember that the winter wave began with a surge of BA. 1 and BA. 2 subvariants. This duo dominated in New York until the end of June. – meaning that if you got stuck with COVID-19 before the summer, it’s probably maxed out due to BA. 1 or BA. 2
This is because the virus continues to evolve, spreading people as they move away from the early stages of omicron. The coronavirus is moving away from our immune defenses.
By last spring, BA. 4 and BA. 5 had claimed the crown of the subvariant. In York and across the country, BA. 4 and BA. 5 dragged on throughout the summer, causing an average of about 20,000 cases and 90 deaths each and every week since June expired. That’s about 1,600 COVID deaths since the beginning of summer.
Statewide, especially in the colder northern regions, this pair is already causing a backlog of COVID-19 hospitalizations this fall. The immunity scammer – XBB – has made the impression in Asia. It is a spin-off of BA. 2.
(If those naming conventions are getting ridiculous, fitness experts are okay with you. )
Outgoing White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and other fitness experts expect bivalent boosters to offer some coverage instead of BQ. 1 and XBB.
“We expect more and more people to come in and get their upgraded B. 5 bivalent boosters, because that can protect them,” Fauci said on the Brian Lehrer Show on Friday.
This year, COVID-19 has killed about 7,000 more people in New York City. For comparison, the NYPD has recorded about 300 murders this year and 1500 shooting victims.
That’s a fair point. When COVID-19 vaccines fell in December 2020, mass vaccination sites and implementation measures, such as nursing home campaigns, pushed policy rates to around 50% in May 2021. New York and New Jersey responded by lifting “coronavirus pause” restrictions. Capacity limits for indoor activities and social distancing.
But then came the delta variant, a summer wave of new hospitalizations and deaths. Instead of reinstating measures such as universal mask use, many jurisdictions have opted for an incentive to vaccinate.
New York City, for example, introduced the Key to NYC vaccine requirement for indoor venues, a $100 incentive program, and office mandates from July to November 2021. A study published in September, led by the city’s former fitness commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, tested whether those efforts had an impact on vaccination rates. It revealed that New York City was registering about 400,000 more shooters compared to similar urban spaces without those measures.
Key to New York City’s requirements, $100 incentives and office mandates actually put pressure on other people to get vaccinated, though it’s hard to say whether the effect of one outweighed the other given that they all started weeks apart.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the payment of $100 for the doses in late July 2021. By early October, another 250,000 people had tried the program, according to the New York Post. De Blasio went from early injections to booster doses and also tested the systems with children. Mayor Eric Adams continued the incentive earlier this year. Adams’ management told Gothamist last week that the program has distributed about $90 million and 900,000 doses to date.
But studies report less luck with vaccine bills in the country. A randomized controlled trial from the University of Southern California saw no overall benefit with injection money bills.
“Even in some subpopulations that were hesitant to get vaccinated, they saw a relief in the likelihood of them getting vaccinated,” UPenn’s Milkman said. He said it’s probably because other people are wary of the concept of a government paying them for vaccines. .
A year ago, when New York City established a vaccination mandate for city employees, some agencies had policy rates as low as 51 percent. Now, there is no branch below 90 percent. The mandates have also provoked a healthy dose of animosity and protest, although less than 1% of the population has lost their jobs.
In the post-employment era, one of the most difficult motivators may simply be an undeniable text message. Recent trials have shown that text-based reminders like “your vaccine is waiting for you at your local pharmacy” work well, motivating thousands of other people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as well as the flu.
“We think part of the explanation for why telling other people that a vaccine is reserved for you or that you’re waiting for it works is that it influences the effect of the staff,” Milkman said. “Now I feel like it’s mine. This is my vaccine.
Other than that, the next most productive motivator may be the COVID-19 cases themselves. Data visualization increasing in cases and network transmission tends to be followed by increased demand for vaccines. Reminder: Injections take about two weeks to activate.
“This will be the first winter in two years where other people don’t take precautions,” Lee said. “Hopefully things don’t get too complicated, but we’ll have to see. “
tagging
The transit company had closed the toilets during the pandemic, saying it lacked the resources to leave them blank.
The transit company had closed the toilets during the pandemic, saying it lacked the resources to leave them blank.
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