Once a week, typically on the day that the Centers for Disease Control updates its COVID data tracker, I send my dad a text: “Did you make an appointment to get your booster?”
Yes, I’m a nudge. But the data for people his age are unambiguous: A second booster helps keep them alive and out of the hospital. Each new variant of omicron, currently the worrisomely contagious BA.5, provides fresh kindling for infections. And even though fewer people are dying these days compared with earlier waves, hospitalization rates are ticking up — most dramatically among people 70 and older.
My father is hardly the only one in that group not up to date on COVID vaccines. While public health experts have been debating the makeup of fall booster shots, they seem to be overlooking a concerning trend: a growing lack of enthusiasm for more shots. Very few of those eligible have received their second boosters, and many have missed even the first one. Most children under 12 remain unvaccinated. COVID shots are being thrown out in the U.S. at an accelerating pace; since May, some 12 million doses have expired, the Wall Street Journal reported.
