I was talking to a neighbor the other day about COVID, and he said with vehemence he wasn't getting the new booster. He'd already had COVID twice, despite being vaccinated with the original two shots in 2021. Since COVID hadn't killed him, he said, why bother with more shots? I reminded him that more than 1 million Americans have died of COVID, and that boosters have been proven to dramatically reduce the risk of serious illness. That led him to launch into a riff on "Fauci" laced with conspiracy theories; if that damn Fauci wanted him to get boosted, well, hell, forget it. These views, of course, are shared by tens of millions of people who've absorbed the same deluge of disinformation, and who've bought into the deadly notion that the other tribe gets shots, and ours doesn't. Besides, the pandemic is over, isn't it?
Sorry, but it isn't. COVID deaths and hospitalizations have fallen dramatically, thanks to the immunity produced by hundreds of millions of vaccinations and tens of millions of COVID infections over the past year. But immunity from infection and shots wanes after four to six months, and every winter, indoor gatherings fuel surges of infectious disease. A new swarm of subvariants has evolved to evade immunity, and are spreading rapidly; hospitals in the U.K., Europe, and Singapore are filling up with COVID cases. One of the new subvariants, BQ.1, already makes up 10 percent of new cases in the U.S., according to the CDC. A substantial portion of the millions who may be infected in coming months may develop long COVID — especially those who are unvaccinated or get COVID multiple times. Fortunately, the new "bivalent" booster will help shield people from serious illness, death, and long COVID. But so far, only about 7 percent of 209 million eligible Americans have gotten the new booster, out of COVID fatigue, tribal loyalty, or not knowing it's available. Don't roll the COVID dice. Go get a booster.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
America's favorite fast food restaurantsThe Explainer There are different ways of thinking about how Americans define how they most like to spend their money on burgers, tacos and fried chicken
-
Law: The battle over birthright citizenshipFeature Trump shifts his focus to nationwide injunctions after federal judges block his attempt to end birthright citizenship
-
The threat to the NIHFeature The Trump administration plans drastic cuts to medical research. What are the ramifications?
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
RFK Jr.: A new plan for sabotaging vaccinesFeature The Health Secretary announced changes to vaccine testing and asks Americans to 'do your own research'
-
Five years on: How Covid changed everythingFeature We seem to have collectively forgotten Covid’s horrors, but they have completely reshaped politics
-
HMPV is spreading in China but there's no need to worryThe Explainer Respiratory illness is common in winter
-
Marty Makary: the medical contrarian who will lead the FDAIn the Spotlight What Johns Hopkins surgeon and commentator Marty Makary will bring to the FDA
-
Long Covid: study shows damage to brain's 'control centre'The Explainer Research could help scientists understand long-term effects of Covid-19 as well as conditions such as MS and dementia
-
Should we be worried about declining birth rates?Talking Points Baby boom or bust
-
FDA OKs new Covid vaccine, available soonSpeed read The CDC recommends the new booster to combat the widely-circulating KP.2 strain
