New CDC booster data on omicron, protecting seniors: COVID updates
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were highly effective at preventing omicron-related hospitalizations.
The booster doses were 90% effective at keeping people infected with the omicron variant out of the hospital and 82% effective at preventing emergency department and urgent care visits, the data shows.
The CDC report analyzed emergency room visits, urgent care visits and hospitalizations between August 2021 and Jan. 5, 2022, in which the average person received their booster shot within a month and a half of needing medical help.
The data emphasizes recent research and assertions by public health officials that boosters significantly prevent severe illness and hospitalization.
Another CDC study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday found people who received three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to be symptomatic when they got tested for COVID-19, compared to people receiving tests who only got two vaccine doses.
Also in the news:
►The CDC on Thursday also released data showing unvaccinated adults age 65 and older who are infected with COVID-19 are 49 times more likely to be hospitalized than those in the same age group who are vaccinated and have gotten their booster shots.
►Federal data released Thursday show the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital beds is up just 0.84% from a week earlier, while the number of patients admitted in the latest week is down some 1.62% from a week earlier. That still leaves 160,714 patients in American hospital beds.
►Vaccination has “no adverse associations” with fertility in women, according to a study published Thursday in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Researchers studied more than 2,000 women between ages 21 and 45.
►Singer Adele has postponed her Las Vegas residency due to COVID-related production delays, the singer announced a day before her first show was set to kick off.
►A passenger’s refusal to wear a face mask on board, which is required by federal law, forced an American Airlines flight bound for London to return to Miami this week. Police have not arrested the woman, and the department spokesperson said American Airlines will handle the incident administratively.
?Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 69 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 860,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 340 million cases and over 5.57 million deaths. More than 209 million Americans – 63% – are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
? What we’re reading: Respiratory therapists are tasked with helping patients breathe — a basic function of life, but a hellish ordeal during a pandemic that aims at people’s lungs. Here’s how two Iowa respiratory therapists push on through COVID’s omicron wave.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY’s free Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
Vaccine hesitancy among Black adults decreased faster than white adults, study finds
Vaccine hesitancy among Black adults has decreased more rapidly over time compared to hesitancy among white adults, according to a study published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings, the researchers say, suggest COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black communities could have fueled faster vaccine acceptance.
“A key factor associated with this pattern seems to be the fact that Black individuals more rapidly came to believe that vaccines were necessary to protect themselves and their communities,” wrote the authors of the study that surveyed 1,200 people.
Researchers saw increases among Black people in the intention to be vaccinated in spring and through early summer of last year. More Black people than white people came to accept that vaccines were “necessary for protection” in March and April 2021, specifically.
Although deep-seated suspicions stemming from historic medical traumas exist, Black people are also “strongly motivated to protect themselves” from discrimination and health neglect, the authors wrote, reflected in community-led health education efforts to counter health disparities.
Still, vaccination rates among Black people continue to trail behind white people, the authors warn. But the results “suggest that this might be less likely the result of vaccine hesitancy than other factors.”
— Nada Hassanein
DeSantis administration puts Florida health official on leave for encouraging vaccinations
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration put Orange County Health Director Dr. Raul Pino on leave this week after encouraging his staff to get vaccinated.
Pino had written in a Jan. 4 email to his staff: “I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public…
Read More: New CDC booster data on omicron, protecting seniors: COVID updates