A new COVID vaccine is due out next month, but health experts and analysts say it is likely to be coolly received even as hospitalizations from "Eris", a variant of the Omicron form of the coronavirus, rise around the country.

Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. But demand for the vaccine has dropped sharply since 2021 when it first became available and more than 240 million people in the U.S., or 73% of the population, received at least one shot.

In the fall of 2022, by which time most people had either had the COVID virus or the vaccine, fewer than 50 million people got the shots.

  • @zhunk@beehaw.org
    24•11 months ago

    Ouch. I’m glad you talked to a doctor about it.

    I’m gonna get my shots. I haven’t had bad enough effects to matter, so I’ll try to do my part for herd immunity. And I work with too many antivax suburban moms to feel safe, so it’s also for me, lol.

      • @Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de
        9•11 months ago

        I wound up in the ER after my first shot, but it was more a false alarm because I wasn’t aware of the potential for thyroid gland swelling, which made me feel like my throat was closing shut.

        Good thing it was a flase alarm, too, because I was stuck in an empty waiting room for 2 hours thinking I was dying before the swelling lessened, at which point I was finally seen, told there were no issues, given 2 tylenol, and charged $900. Fucking America.

        BUT ANYWAY with even the “safe” side effects being so brutal (I also had an almost-fainting-spell and my skin felt sunburnt for 3 days), people should be more understanding when someone’s side effects are actually considered unsafe.