As the COVID-19 Omicron variant begins to overwhelm the U.S. health care system in some parts of the U.S., new research from the Commonwealth Fund and the Yale School of Public Health shows how much accelerating the pace of vaccine boosters could save lives and limit hospitalizations. Researchers found that doubling the daily pace of COVID-19 booster shots in December could prevent approximately 41,000 deaths and more than 400,000 hospitalizations by May 2022.
On To the Point, the authors highlight the urgent need to administer boosters as quickly as possible to all eligible. Although the U.S. vaccination campaign has profoundly altered the pandemic’s trajectory, new variants, combined with waning immunity, require heightened effort. Without increasing the pace of boosters, hospitalizations will peak at 30,000 per day — compared with 24,000 if booster vaccinations were doubled and 20,000 if they were tripled.
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