Less than 4% of U.S. adults have gotten updated Covid booster shots
At least 7.6 million people have received an updated Covid booster shot since the start of September.
At least 7.6 million people have received an updated Covid booster since the start of September, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number represents around 3.6% of people currently eligible to receive the shots in the U.S.
The data does not include people who received updated Pfizer-BioNTech boosters in Idaho and Texas, the CDC said, so it is likely an underestimate.
The CDC signed off on updated versions of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s booster shots on Sept. 1, and pharmacies and other vaccination sites began administering the new shots around Labor Day weekend. The bivalent shots target both the original coronavirus strain and the currently circulating omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
Dr. Scott Roberts, a Yale Medicine infectious disease specialist, said the relatively low booster uptake was "demoralizing."
"I would expect a much higher proportion of Americans to have gotten the booster by this point," he said.
Rating: 5