The US is lagging on booster shots compared to other western countries

By Tara John and Isabelle Jani Friend, CNN

The United States has a booster shot problem. As other nations hurtle ahead in their Covid-19 vaccination programs, lagging uptake in the US of the third vaccine is concerning public health experts.

As of Sunday, uptake of the third shot in the United Kingdom (55.4% of the total population), Germany (55%), France (51.1%) and Canada (44%) dwarfed the US figure of 27.6%, according to Our World in Data.

Evidence showing high rates of protection against the virus from three doses, and an Omicron variant-fueled surge in cases in the US, has struggled to convince the American public to take the third shot, CNN’s Jacqueline Howard reports. According to CNN analysis of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, the pace of booster doses going into arms is the lowest it has been in months.

Experts say Covid-19 fatigue and the partisan divide, which has plagued America’s vaccination campaign, is partly responsible for these figures: A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released last month found that 58% of fully vaccinated Democrats who have not had the booster expressed interest in a third dose, compared to just 18% of fully vaccinated Republicans who have not had it.

Waning immunity is complicating the situation. Israel began vaccinating at-risk populations and people over 60 with a fourth dose January 2, and a pre-print study from the country suggests that the extra shot of Pfizer/BioNTech seems to provide better protection from infection and severe illness than three shots of the vaccine.

CDC studies released last week showed that there were fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations after the third dose than after the second dose — but its effectiveness declined over time.

In the face of waning protection, boosters are key in helping to push the coronavirus to an endemic disease instead of causing pandemic-levels of infection, Andy Pekosz, Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told CNN.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: When can younger children be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United States?

A: The timeline for when children younger than five might start receiving Covid-19 vaccinations in the US has just been pushed back.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is waiting for Pfizer-BioNTech to submit data from an ongoing trial on a three-dose regimen in these younger children before moving forward with consideration of an emergency use authorization.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is currently authorized for use in people as young as five. If the new emergency use authorization is granted, this shot will be the first coronavirus vaccine available for the youngest children — and the tentative plan is to roll out about 10 million vaccine doses initially, according to a CDC document.

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