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More than a month after U. S. fitness officials announced that the U. S. As the U. S. Department of Health update COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans, only 7. 1% of U. S. adults have rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated and only 2. 1% of young people have been vaccinated.
Adoption is slow at best, and existing rates were called “appalling” Thursday by a vaccination adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC’s Advisory Committee received an update on the fall campaign to build COVID-19 coverage ahead of the winter respiratory illness season.
The existing vaccination rate is well below the knowledge of a survey last month that indicated more than a portion of U. S. adults plan to get vaccinated. And the survey knowledge presented to the CDC’s advisory committee doesn’t particularly differ from that. In a National Vaccination Survey – Adult COVID Module that took place Oct. 8-14 among 14,715 adults, 24. 6% said they would “definitely get vaccinated” and another 30. 6% said they “probably would. “This is in addition to the 7. 1 percent who said they were already vaccinated. The remaining 37% said they would definitely or probably not get vaccinated.
The disappointing vaccination rate so far could partly reflect a difficult rollout of updated vaccines this year, which were first distributed on the ad market and not through a federal distribution system. From the early days of this year’s rollout, other people looking for the updated vaccines reported finding limited supplies, canceled pharmacy appointments, and billing chaos. Some insurance companies have been slow to update their billing codes to include updated vaccines, leading some policyholders to face erroneous bills of $200. .
Once those issues are largely resolved, CDC Director Mandy Cohen continues to expect vaccination rates to rise, reaching at least last year’s disappointing 17% rate.
But the low vaccination rate poses a challenge for the country that is facing a new wave of COVID-19 this winter. Another factor is the continued erosion of monitoring and data reporting. With low cases, state reports of a decline, and scarce testing data. , the CDC has a particularly narrow view of the flow of SARS-CoV-2 compared to previous editions of the pandemic. The company relies primarily on surveillance of emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and deaths to assess transmission. Another tracking formula that has shown wastewater analysis is useful in pinpointing upcoming surges, but even that has been hampered.
Politico reported Thursday that a quarter of the nation’s wastewater testing sites were out of service due to a contract dispute. In September, the CDC attempted to update Boston-based Biobot with Verily, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. But Biobot filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, postponing the transition until the GAO intervenes, which it is expected to do until January.
It’s unclear exactly why the CDC was looking to transfer from Biobot to Verily for its wastewater monitoring needs, but pricing could have played a role. Verily’s contract is worth $38 million over five years, while Biobot’s is worth $31 million in less than a year. and a half.
For now, of the 1,200 wastewater testing sites in the CDC’s national network, about 400 in “a handful of states and territories” are closed indefinitely. And even when they’re back online, state epidemiologists warned Politico that the shift to new strategies and knowledge systems may simply take some extra time. “It’s as undeniable as just handing over the keys to Verily,” a state official told the outlet.
Overall, surveillance will most likely be hampered this winter, and if vaccination rates do not increase significantly, the population as a whole will not reach coverage levels. Although past vaccinations and infections provide some long-term coverage rather than serious illness and death. , coverage against infections and mild to moderate illnesses decreases within a few months. Seniors are especially vulnerable without a booster. Data presented to the CDC on Thursday suggests that 20. 5 percent of people 75 and older have received a vaccine, so far, and only 15. 4 percent of people 65 and older have been vaccinated.
Meanwhile, while the flow of SARS-CoV-2 is now quiet, genetic research published this week indicates that the pandemic virus continues to adapt to our immune responses and evolves much faster than other respiratory viruses, adding influenza and other human viruses. . coronavirus.
According to CDC data, the United States is reporting about 16,000 weekly hospitalizations and 1,200 weekly deaths from COVID-19.
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