WHY ARE AMERICANS NOT GETTING BOOSTED?

What's wrong with the USA?  Clearly, a fully completed vaccination sequence for COVID-19 keeps you alive.  Boosted Americans 97 times less likely to die of this virus than the unvaccinated!!!  We did okay about the two Pfizer/Moderna and one Johnson & Johnson dosages.  Sure, Republicans and a few other categories were laggard.  However, the whole country seems now to be dawdling over the essential booster.

The science is overwhelming:

A recent study from Israel, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was clarifying. For both the elderly and people between 40 and 59, severe illness and death were notably lower among the boosted than the merely vaccinated. For adults younger than 40, serious illness was rare in both groups — but even rarer among the boosted: Of the almost two million vaccinated people ages 16 to 39 in the study, 26 of the unboosted got severely ill, compared with only one boosted person.

First, I've shown this graphic before, but the U.S. is not handling the Omicron variant well:

 A good part of the problem is that we have resisted getting a booster shot:

Worse, from Kaiser Hospital:

In other words, seems that we'll never get over 50%.  When the evidence is so clear, why are so many Americans avoiding the life-saving booster dosage?

The New York Times this morning attempted to explain why...and failed.  Read this:

• Medical care in the U.S. is notoriously fragmented.  There is no centralized record or universal insurance system.  Thus, preventive care, like a booster shot, falls through the cracks.  Hmmmm.
• Authorities struggle to communicate effectively with the public.  In effect, the NYT says that Americans are not educated enough to understand experts.  In other words, all that science confuses the masses.
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  One example always cited is how the CDC and World Health Organization initially discouraged mask-wearing.  Part of this had to do with the scarcity of "medical" masks which was a crisis at hospitals.  Thus came cloth masks, which more recently was shown to be almost useless.
• More specifically regarding vaccinations, government was slow to give formal approval to vaccines.  It was only a little more than a week ago that Moderna's finally was endorsed.
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  There is further uncertainty about who is eligible for boosters.  See if you truly understand this CDC announcement.  In many countries, health officials are consistently urging adults of all ages to receive booster shots.  Israel and several other countries are even giving SECOND booster shots to vulnerable people.
• Then there is that matter of humanitarian greed.  Some booster skeptics are bothered that rich countries like the U.S. are giving third shots while people in poorer countries have not received any.  This if usually reinforced by WHO, which says there is no evidence that COVID boosters are needed for healthy children and young adults.  But we can't be any more so than our allies in Europe, who do get boosted more.  
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  I blame them for a lot, so let me add the FOX News Channel.  Well, I don't watch them much, but surely the media would have said something if suddenly Tucker Carlson (who is the most-watched cable news personality with 3.2 viewers/night) regularly told his audience to get boosted.  All that is hypocrisy, for 90% of the Fox staff are vaccinated.

In short, pundits remain confused as to why more Americans don't get boosted.  Just one more example of boosters not following previous trends.  Remember how southern and Trump states have tended to avoid vaccinations?  Well here is a confounding most boosted state list:

• #1    Vermont  58%
• #2    Minnesota  55%
• #15  Hawaii  48%
• #20  Montana  45%
• #26  Kentucky  42%
• #27  New York  42%
• #29  Wyoming  41%
• #34  North Dakota  40%
• #45  Mississippi  35%
• #49  District of Columbia  33%
• #51  New Hampshire  20%

Part of the problem is the COVID-19 virus itself.  It has managed to quickly mutate, with the Delta variant gaining a foothold, then the Omicron variant quickly taking over, which while more contagious (3-5 times more), apparently is not as dangerous.  The quick evolution overwhelms a cautious and bureaucratic government.  The U.S. is slow to make these decisions.  Complicate that with a sense of citizen free-will and partisan states.  Many countries of the Orient can be more decisive, with a population that tends to, or is compelled to be, obedient.  

In any case, just pure common sense can save your life.  If you are fully vaccinated and boosted, this Pandemic is over for you.  Your chances of getting COVID-19 and dying are lower than being killed by the seasonal flu, and much lower than a car accident.  Symptoms, if you are so unlucky to be infected, should be closer to a cold than the flu.  Plus, unlike unvaccinated people, you can go to a restaurant, board a cruise ship and safely get together with your family.  You have every reason to get boosted as soon as possible.

I sometimes end with a video sent to me by friends.  Here is one today that has no connection to getting boosted, but is worthy of your time.

That was Agnes Granny Zhelsnik, who had just celebrated her 100th birthday when that video was made.  Sad to say, but that was six years ago.  She passed away in 2017 at the age of 103.  I made a quick search for the oldest teacher today and failed to find any.  Said to be the first teacher, however, is Confucius, who lived around 2600 years ago.  Lived to a ripe old age of 71, when the average longevity was half that.

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