Both Moderna and Pfizer have requested emergency use authorization of their updated vaccines. It appears no additional human trials will be needed. If the FDA grants the authorization, boosters of the updated vaccine may be available in early to mid-September. Given that I got my second booster in April, around five months ago, I will probably not wait too long before getting in line for the new booster. Of course, it is tempting to wait until October and get flu and covid vaccines on the same visit.
The local county school system is catching heat for doing away with covid leave. During the last two years, teachers or other staff coming down with covid could take covid leave, special leave that did not count against whatever sick or annual leave they had accrued. That's said to be gone now; teachers and others testing positive will have to use their sick leave if they want to stay out of the classroom or school building. Sick leave is used for more than the illness of the person who has the leave. Sick leave might be used for caring for a sick child, for example, or medical appointments during pregnancy. I no longer have children in the K-12 schools, but if I did I would not want them in a classroom with a teacher who's testing positive for covid, asymptomatic though they may be and unwilling or unable to use up their accrued leave. The city school system here is keeping covid leave in place for now.
Will a new, improved vaccine contribute to the vaccine fatigue that seems to be growing in many places? One source defined such fatigue as "inertia or inaction towards vaccine information or instruction due to perceived burden and burnout." Precursors of vaccine fatigue are said to include the frequency of immunization demands, vaccine side effects, and misconceptions about the need to vaccinate. Is this fatigue why the turnout for the first booster was not as large as predicted and turnout for the second was even worse? Or are people simply tired of everything about the pandemic, other than those people who would prefer to keep working from anywhere but a business office? Do they think out-of-sight, out-of-mind will make it go away? I would not be surprised to learn that a large number of theses or dissertations were being crafted on the psychology or sociology or public health implications of the last two-plus years.
1 comment:
I looked early on at the takeup of the flu vaccine among NHS staff. It's free, arranged by the employer and given on works time. If you can't get 80% for that then it's going to be even less for something people have to make an effort for. It's been pushed out as a news item by new news - war, cost of living increases are more interesting than a two year old story that's just numbers now. I'm happy for it to remain a non-story where people get sick but get better.
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