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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration hopes to make getting a COVID-19 booster as routine as going in for the yearly flu shot.
That’s at
the heart of its campaign to sell the newly authorized shot to an American
public that has widely rejected COVID-19 boosters since they first became
available last fall.
Shots of the
updated boosters, specifically designed by Pfizer and Moderna to respond to the
omicron strain, could start within days. The U.S. government has purchased 170
million doses and is emphasizing that everyone will have free access to the
booster.
White House
COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said this latest round of shots will offer
protection during the busy cold and flu season, with the hope of transitioning
people to get the vaccine yearly. Typically, at least half of U.S. adults get a
flu shot.
“We expect
them to provide more durable protection over time,” Jha said in an interview
Wednesday with The Associated Press. “The goal very much is to get to a point
where people get their COVID shot on a regular basis, the way they do their flu
shot.”
Community
health workers in North Carolina, home to the country’s lowest COVID-19 booster
rate, like the strategy, especially because of confusion among some people
about vaccine schedules.
“I believe
in keeping things simple,” said Marty Stamey, an outreach coordinator for the
Mountain Area Health Education Center in western North Carolina. “I’ve heard a
lot of people say, ‘I think I’ll just wait and try to do it like the flu
shots.’”
The White
House plan also relies in part of on local health departments, providers and
community groups to reach out and encourage people to get the updated booster.
Pharmacies, health providers and state or local health departments are
preparing to send text messages to millions of people that will encourage them
to get a booster this fall, White House officials said.
Jha said he
recommends most Americans get the booster by the end of October.
Still, this
latest vaccination campaign faces several challenges.
A majority
of Americans got their first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine when it
was released last year but they’ve been more reluctant to get a booster jab,
with less than half getting their first booster since it became available late
last year.
Congress
also has not moved forward on President Joe Biden’s $22.5 billion request
earlier this year for the COVID-19 response. Republicans criticized the
request, pointing to the $1.9 trillion already spent on responding to the
pandemic. Running short on funds, the government announced it would stop
shipping COVID-19 tests to people’s homes after Friday.
White House
officials say those local leaders deserve a lot of credit for stamping out
misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine and convincing many around the
country that the shot will protect them.
“Those are
the really critical messengers,” Jha said.
That
on-the-ground work has been crucial to getting people vaccinated in the rural,
Spanish- and Haitian-speaking communities that the Migrant Clinicians Network
has reached throughout Texas, California and Maryland with its $8.5 million
federal grant.
“Simply
having the vaccines available is one thing, but getting the shots in the arms
is another,” said Amy Liebman, a chief program officer for the nonprofit group.
Some of
those local health organizations, too, are now stretched as they work to get
low vaccination rates among children under 12 up. Only a third of 5- to 11-year-olds
received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine since becoming eligible late last
year. Meanwhile, just 7% of children under 5 have gotten a first dose since it
was made available this summer.
Dr. Niharika
Khanna at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has just started making
progress on convincing new mothers that the vaccine is safe and effective for
their babies.
Her program,
which has hired more than 269 health workers and administered more than 12,000
vaccinations and boosters across Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West
Virginia, isn’t quite ready to transition back to pushing COVID-19 boosters.
“All of
these people, all of these relationships we’ve carefully cultivated are at risk
for falling apart,” Khanna said. “Today if you were to say to me switch to
booster, I’d say no. I need another two to three weeks to really get these
people going.”
AP White
House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.