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.

    • @StringTheory@beehaw.org
      10•11 months ago

      If you are sick with anything contagious throw on a mask if you go out in public. Common courtesy.

      If your immune system is compromised, you are already wearing a mask in public anyway.

      If you are visiting people in fragile health, you are already wearing a mask anyway.