Yesterday's WSJ: "Some Who Rushed to Covid-19 Vaccine Hold Off on Boosters

Health authorities hoped new shot targeting Omicron would lift sluggish booster rates, but some say they don’t need it"

 

SOME? What a farce.

The NY Times, updated yesterday, presents CDC’s numbers for Americans who have received at least one booster: 109.6. There are 333 million Americans.

Thus the needle remains at 32.9% of Americans who have received at least one booster.

That number (33%) has not risen in September despite the shiny new useless bivalent boosters that don’t even work in animals and cleverly avoided any testing in humans.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Since the new boosters became available earlier this month at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and elsewhere, about 4.4 million people have received a new booster shot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.” The article also claims that “After some 77% of adults got the primary series, however, roughly 52% got the first booster” according to CDC.

But that isn’t right. 4.4 million divided by 333 million Americans is 1.3%.

At the September 1 ACIP meeting, which I live-blogged, CDC told the committee that 49% of those eligible (who have completed a primary series) had gotten a booster. Well, here it is September 23, and guess how many of those eligible have gotten a booster (as of September 21)? 48.7% according to CDC’s website. Yet 49% (Those claimed to have gotten a booster on Sept 1) plus 1.3% (those claimed to have gotten a COVID bivalent booster since Sept. 1) equals 50.3%.

Is 48.7% the same as 50.3% or “roughly 52%”? I don’t think so, even with the New Math.

So the WSJ or the CDC or both are putting out false data.

I don’t think anybody wants to offer themself up to test a vaccine that FDA and the manufacturer wouldn’t give to a guinea pig or rabbit.

And just as I was typing this, I got a Robocall from Walgreens telling me it was time to schedule my flu shot and new COVID booster. Good luck upping those numbers in this household.