The Omicron-specific bivalent booster shots have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the nation pivots to encourage annual vaccinations, Arizona gears up to rollout the new booster shots to seniors before the expected winter surge of COVID-19 sets in.
Last Thursday, CDC advisers voted to recommend the COVID-19 bivalent boosters produced by Pfizer and Moderna to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which currently account for the majority of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. The Pfizer vaccine will be available for anyone ages 12 and older, while the Moderna booster will be made available only to adults. According to Inside Health Policy, the committee of CDC advisers estimates that making the boosters available now rather than November should prevent 137,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths.
Arizonans may be able to receive the booster as early as the end of the week, according to AZMirror. The state has pre-ordered 35,400 doses, a low number but in line with the current population of boosted residents. Only 19% of Arizonans have received any booster shot, and public health officials hope that the new boosters will keep future infection rates from rising as antibodies from the summer’s BA.5 surge are dwindling. From executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, Will Humble:
In Arizona, we’re in a substantial down-swing in hospitalizations, And I expect we’ll stay there for a while, until the antibody immunity wanes a little towards November and December. It boils down to community antibody levels.
The number of new COVID-19 cases dropped substantially for the second week in a row, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19 data dashboard. This week, there were only 3,666 new cases reported and 48 new deaths, a slight decrease from last week.
As with prior vaccine rollouts, ADHS is prioritizing older Arizonans. According to a post in the ADHS Director’s Blog, in the past six months, 81% of Arizona’s COVID-19 deaths have been among those 65 years and older.
Worryingly, about a third of vaccinated people age 65 and older have yet to receive even one of the two booster doses that had been recommended for those 50 and older. And only a third of vaccinated individuals ages 50 and older have received both recommended booster doses.
U.S. health officials are recommending an annual COVID-19 booster for all Americans, which is a significant decrease from the prior recommendation of receiving a booster every few months. According to the Wall Street Journal, health authorities have recommended doses thus far based on the changes in the virus’s evolution and data on the public’s waning immunity. To lower confusion and fatigue for the public, officials have decided to pivot. From White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha:
Barring any new variant curveball, for a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single annual Covid shot should provide a high degree of protection all year.
Arizona News
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Tucson over an employee vaccine mandate and other related conduct. The Associated Press reports that Brnovich is accusing the city of discriminating against employees who requested religious accommodations or disability-related medical exemptions.
A 2020 law known as Jake’s Law, which was designed to curb suicide rates and expand mental health treatment for Arizonans without insurance has hit some snags in its implementation. Not the least of which has been uneven staffing for school counselors, social workers and notably health care workers. According to AZCIR, mental health providers have had a difficult time maintaining adequate staffing levels to carry out the requirements of Jake’s Law in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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