The updated COVID-19 booster shot that targets two omicron subvariants in addition to the unique coronavirus strain has been available to most Americans for over 4 months, however the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says just 18% of adults have gotten it.
So why have so few people rolled up their sleeves?
Despite COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. once more being on the rise, the months-long booster campaign appears to have an education problem, in keeping with a report published Thursday by the CDC.
Essentially the most common reason given for not getting the updated COVID-19 booster shot was a lack of expertise about eligibility for it, in keeping with researchers.
The survey, which was conducted in early November, asked 1,200 vaccinated Americans their reasons for receiving or not receiving an updated booster shot. Of the 714 Americans who had not yet gotten the updated shot, greater than 23% – or near 1 in 4 – reported that they didn’t know they were eligible for it.
The second commonest reason was a lack of expertise about vaccine availability, while the third mostly reported reason was a perceived belief that they were already protected against infection.
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Most participants who were unaware they were eligible for the shot planned to get the booster after reviewing details about vaccination guidelines, the survey found. But a month later, only 29% of the participants who planned to receive the shot had done so, with recontacted participants reporting they were too busy, forgot or nervous in regards to the negative effects.
Lack of expertise in regards to the updated booster shot isn’t a recent trend. A survey published in September found that half of the U.S. had heard little or nothing in regards to the recent shots – a difficulty the researchers behind Thursday’s report also address.
“Increasing awareness is an important first step toward increasing coverage; promotion of tools that provide vaccination guidance by public health authorities and trusted messengers might help encourage individuals who’re unsure about bivalent booster dose recommendations to receive the booster dose,” they said.
