US Covid deaths lower than previous highs amid summer surge | US News

Covid continues to spread rapidly in the U.S., but deaths are lower than they were at the start of the pandemic, largely due to vaccinations and immunity. Yet the country is still struggling to gain a foothold on vaccination as the virus settles into a pattern of twice-yearly surges.

Covid was not as deadly in 2023 as in previous years, falling from the fourth to the tenth leading cause of death, according to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Total deaths fell by 6% from 2022 to 2023.

Covid vaccines have saved millions of lives, a new study in the Lancet confirms. The vaccines reduced deaths by at least 59% between December 2020 and March 2023, equivalent to more than 1.6 million lives saved in Europe alone, the researchers said.

But Covid continues to cause hospitalizations and deaths, as well as disruption from illness and Long Covid. More than 5% of Americans reported currently experiencing Long Covid symptoms this spring.

The current wave has now exceeded last summer's highs and continues to grow as extreme heat forces Americans to stay indoors and precautions are largely ignored.

According to the CDC, everyone over six months of age should receive the updated Covid booster shot, which is expected in the next few weeks.

But knowledge of and acceptance of new booster vaccinations has declined. Only 22.3 percent of adults and 14.9 percent of children in the United States are up to date on their vaccinations.

Even for those who want the new booster shots, getting them can be a challenge – especially in the summer months when pharmacies and doctors are reluctant to order new vaccines and then throw them away when the new booster shot comes out in the fall.

Leigh Anne Riedman, a mother of four from Santa Barbara, California, is searching in vain for vaccines for her children. It's been a few months since she got Covid, and she wants her children to be protected during the summer surge, especially since they're going back to school next week – but she's had no luck.

“There are no longer the usual clinics like in the beginning, where you could just drive up and get vaccinated. For children's vaccinations, you have to make an appointment at the doctor's office,” she said.

“And they just said, 'We don't have any and we won't have any until we get them in September. We don't know when that will be, but call back in September to make an appointment.'”

Next, she began browsing the websites of local pharmacies, including major ones like CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.

Vaccinating younger children can be particularly complicated. Large pharmacies do not vaccinate children under a certain age, for example three years or 18 months.

Riedman's children are 11, 15, 16 and 18 years old, but she still hasn't been able to find vaccination appointments at local pharmacies.

“They had none of it,” she said. “One of them said I could drive about an hour to get the shot.”

Even vaccines.gov no longer lists any available vaccination appointments. The CDC will add a pharmacy locator tool once the new booster shots are available, according to a message on the website.

“It’s a flashback to the early days,” Riedman said, when the first vaccines came on the market and she was constantly updating websites to look for appointments.

Now she must send her children back to school at the height of a major outbreak without the protection of a recent vaccination. She hopes to snag an appointment in September. Whether the children get last season's booster shot or this year's shot is not as important to her as getting the vaccine quickly.

For other people, the issue may not be availability, but knowing when booster shots will come out and how long protection lasts.

“We live in a confusing labyrinth of Covid vaccine understanding,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. A key part of the problem is that the U.S. has adopted the annual vaccination strategy for viruses like flu or RSV – but Covid has fallen into a years-long transmission pattern from the start.

“We did not develop our vaccines this way,” said Osterholm. “We have to get rid of the idea that [only] vaccinate against Covid in late autumn, early winter.”

People at particular risk, including those over 65 and those with underlying health conditions, need to be vaccinated twice a year to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death, he said.

Two of Riedman's children have health issues, and one of her children was hospitalized with Covid in the past. She's desperate to avoid that again. Her children will be wearing masks this fall, but she fears they'll be at greater risk the longer they wait for vaccines.

“It feels very much like you’re detached and on your own,” she said.

It reminds her of the early stages of the pandemic, when there was a long wait for Covid vaccines to be approved for children: “It felt like people were being careless with the health of these children.”

Osterholm, from Minnesota, was able to get another Covid booster shot. “I know I'm not going to get the new Flirt variant vaccine, the mRNA vaccine. [shot]for four months, but the peak is right now,” he said.

He called for greater investment in vaccine research and development and manufacturing capacity to strengthen the response to Covid and improve future responses to other emerging viruses.

Without these measures, Osterholm said, “we are less prepared to respond to a pandemic today than we were in 2019.”