As the weather gets colder, Americans hunker down for a third winter marred by COVID-19 — a virus everyone would gladly erase from our memories. But we can’t, because the bug is still taking about 400 American lives per day. Annualized, that works out to more than Alzheimer’s or diabetes and about triple the total killed by influenza and pneumonia combined.
How to stay safe? Same as since the beginning: Wear a mask indoors, particularly when around many other people. Especially wear a mask if you’re showing any symptoms. And ensure you’ve had updated vaccines, particularly if you’re vulnerable.
Right now, that means that older Americans and those with underlying medical conditions should get the bivalent booster, which is specially designed to combat the strains threatening to fuel a spike in new cases. Yet nationwide uptake of the new-and-improved shot as registered by the CDC is now a miserable 4%, which is also roughly the rate in New York City.
