A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot.
One expert called the rates “abysmal.”
The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from a national survey of thousands of Americans, conducted two weeks ago.
The data also indicated that nearly 40% of adults said they probably or definitely will not get the shot. A similar percentage of parents said they did not plan to vaccinate their children.
I have small children. I’ve had COVID three times (that I’m aware of; the last time I got it I just thought I had allergies and did a home test on a lark that was positive).
Having small children in daycare/early grade school, where if your kid has covid means parents have to take five days off of work to stay home with their kids to follow the isolation protocols means kids are always being sent in with covid and parents don’t report it, because then they have to follow an isolation protocol instead of their best judgment. Every time I’ve got covid, I caught it from my kids, who get it from other kids. I imagine I’m about as immunized as you can be at this point.
When our kids are positive, we keep them home and follow the isolation protocols, which is a privilege we have. But, I’ll be honest: seems pretty fucking pointless. And each time they’ve gotten it, we only know because we randomly test them when I hear other parents mentioning they had covid but the kids seemed fine so they sent them in. They’ve had symptoms once. They’ve had several colds that have been AWFUL, but none of those were covid.
Covid for my kids is a positive test. That’s usually the only symptom. I can understand why parents just send them in to school. Yet there are no formal policies requiring a pediatrician visit and a negative test for the flu, or for a bad cold. Just COVID.
It’s really, really absurd, and working parents that I know just treat covid like any other cold: if it’s bad enough that the kids are miserable, they stay home, otherwise, they go in. It’s not the case if you have an immunodeficiency or are very old, but that’s true of every illness for those groups. As far as I can tell, parents have moved past covid. It’s just another illness that kids get.
Young children get sick as often as 12-18 times a year. Acting like covid, which has been in the population for some time now, is still some big bogeyman does an injustice to the actual illnesses that cause disruption. Frankly, it’s a virus that has now become a political bellwether, which is incredibly, incredibly stupid.
Idk about everyone else, but this is getting ridiculous now for our family. We’re doing our best to continue to follow guidance, but even the pediatrics department basically rolls their eyes about covid, because overworked parents have to come in and get a permission slip to send their kids back to school.
I went out the doctor last week, and they not only didn’t offer it, they acted like I was insane for asking, and for wearing a mask into a building full of sick people. The medical profession in the US needs a major overhaul.
Just got mine today. There were a couple hiccups for me though.
First is communication. I didn’t know these were available until a family member mentioned it. The pharmacy has signs for flu shots, why not covid?
Second, supply. I tried making an appointment a week ago, but they didn’t have any, so I had to wait until now.
Finally is insurance. My provider is fantastically opaque about whether they’d cover it. I didn’t know if I’d have to pay for the shot until I saw $0 on the receipt.
To say this has been fumbled would be an understatement. I’m not convinced that any agencies or companies are even trying to get people vaxxed.
Mine is scheduled for next week, so that I have maximum protection through the end of February.
People are over covid. No one cares about it anymore. I think this is due to bad government messaging during covid.
Yes, it is in fact about the POTUS being a fucking moron that dismantled the pandemic response team and spewed nonsense about the CDC and vaccines on a daily basis.
It’s not really well broadcasted, I got it by pure chance when I asked about it while getting my flu vax. Also I’m sure plenty are fatigued from shots at this point and stopped caring.
Tried to get one at my PCP and was told I had to go to a pharmacy. Went to my pharmacy and they haven’t received it yet. Checked in again today and they still don’t have it.
I just got mine along with a flu vaccine yesterday. At around 5pm I went to the CVS website and made an appointment for 2 hours later, it was pretty simple.
What were they expecting when the government stopped paying for it? We already know the normal American healthcare system is garbage, this is the result of that.
It cost me $400 to get my gf and her son vaccinated, that’ll get reimbursed by insurance… eventually, probably. That’s going to be a barrier for a lot of people, just like always.
I’d get it but I haven’t heard anything about where to get it
Pharmacies and general practitioners, just like any other vaccine
I have been trying! All the CVS near me don’t seem to have it and Walgreens canceled my appointment last week and I had to reschedule for weeks from now, im assuming also due to supply issues.
The Walgreens near me have been struggling to even keep regular hours for prescription pickups for over a year let alone doing vaccines.
Something, something free market.
Definitely not many options around here. CVS doesn’t exist, Rite Aid has one remaining location staffed about as well as Walgreens. There’s Walmart, but Walmart can suck it, which only leaves Costco but it’s about a 20+ minute drive across town. All the smaller or independent pharmacies have shut down over the last decade or so too.
Walgreens is the only business with an actual presence around town (probably half a dozen or more locations) but they seem terrible to work for as their employees are striking currently and it’s always been clear when interacting with the employees that they don’t want to be there.
And here in Finland no one can’t even buy the new shots, they are only for people over 65 or at-risk-groups.
In the US its similar. Right now im working with a young man with disabilities and even getting him the shot is tough, no ones publicly saying where its avaliabe and who its avaliabe to, and if I wasn’t digging as part of a job I wouldn’t know jack about them. It’s no surprise few have gotten these shots, few know about them, I’d wager most Americans don’t know they’re out.
I literally walked into a rite aid and got it in 20 mins.
Wild, lucky you. I pass two pharmacies on the way home, haven’t seen so much as a sign about the new vaccines, the flu shot marquee message is still up. This article is the first I’ve seen about these shots even being avliable from anywhere outside of me calling pharmacies at work.
Damn! I am immunocompromised due to congentheart failure. Finding a shot here has been phone calls after phone calls. I finally got on a waiting list for when the pharmacy has it restocked. So weird how much it varies by area!
That’s the official line in the UK - free covid jabs are only available to those who’d be eligible for the flu jab anyway. But when I went to have mine done the other day they did my partner’s flu + covid on the spot too, no fuss. The pharmacist said that turn out has been so low they’ve been told to give it to anyone who asks.
I don’t think there’s been a lot of interest. Nobody seems to be talking about it. I had no idea there was a new vaccine or that anyone was still given a covid vaccine
Can you get one from private side if you really want one?
The last update I had was that the CDC wasn’t recommending another booster for healthy adults in my age range because there were diminishing returns on its effectiveness. The news then got to be too much to keep up on, so until this article, I didn’t even know what the current information is or how many shots I might be ‘behind’ on after getting the first recommended booster. I’m happy to get updated, but the information delivery has been extremely poor.
Lets block the vaccine by age group and use poor messaging and then be confused when nobody gets the shot. Also im waiting till mid November so im good for Thanksgiving through new years and i suspect others are as well.
