Serious cases from Omicron’s new variant, Eris, are on rise in the United States, and despite this fact, a new Covid vaccine to be out next month would likely be in less demand as said by many experts and analysts.
However, some of the health experts are hopeful that the citizens will be willing to get the new shot as much as they would a flu jab. Since 2021, when covid vaccines were introduced for the first time, the demands for coronavirus shots have decreased drastically. In 2021 at least 73% of the US population received at least one shot.
Less than 50 million individuals received the doses in the fall of 2022, by which time the majority of people had contracted either the COVID virus or received the vaccination.
The shot, which has been upgraded to combat the Omicron variant of the virus that has been prevalent since last year, will begin to be offered by healthcare practitioners and pharmacies starting next month, including CVS Health.
According to Ashley Kirzinger, director of survey methodology at the Kaiser Family Foundation, they will be fighting waning worry about the virus as well as exhaustion and doubt about the effectiveness of the vaccination.
According to KFF surveys conducted earlier this year, the main justification given by vaccinated people for forgoing annual doses was that they believed they were immune to the virus due to prior vaccinations or illnesses, she said.
COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have reduced their expectations for the immunisation campaign this autumn, and Pfizer, the largest producer of mRNA vaccines with BioNTech, recently warned that, if things don’t go well, it might be necessary to lay off employees. The company’s main rival, Moderna, acknowledged that demand might only be for 50 million doses.
Sales of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna exceeded $56 billion last year; analysts anticipate $20 billion this year. Michael Yee, an analyst with Jefferies, stated that he does not believe the autumn campaign will surpass last year’s. He said “Take a look at what happened last winter. It was 50 million in the US, and it seems likely to be lower than that, given that there’s less concern about COVID this year than last year.”
The government has largely turned over responsibility for immunising Americans to the private sector after the COVID public health emergency ended in May. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over 1.1 million Americans have passed away from COVID.
The elderly and other high-risk individuals should receive annual doses, according to some experts, as they are more likely to suffer severe consequences from COVID-19.
The Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practises (ACIP) of the CDC may offer a milder recommendation for younger, healthier individuals, according to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University and a liaison to the ACIP. That might have an impact on demand. Schaffner said, “Should children really receive this booster?. Should the average person with no underlying illness who is a younger adult receive this vaccine or should this vaccine now be a more targeted vaccine?”
The revised vaccine for individuals 6 and older was advised to be given once to children by the CDC last year.
