People are concerned about the rise in Covid 19 infections and would like to know if the new vaccine will be recommended for them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell them. Although we have information that the vaccine will be released in mid to late September, we haven’t been told for whom it will be recommended. Certainly, older patients and immunocompromised are going to targeted, but what is the age cut-off, and can you get it just because you want to reduce your risk of getting Covid 19?
Here are a couple of brief updates, but I will update as information becomes available.
Texas Sees Uptick In COVID-19 Hospitalizations
The Dallas Morning News (8/25, Wolf) reported, “COVID-19 is once again rearing its ugly head, causing hospitalizations and cases to increase while the release of updated booster shots is still about a month away.” In Texas, “hospitalizations on Aug. 21 climbed to 1,062, up from 992 a week prior.” However, these totals “are still much lower than those seen last summer. Area health systems reported more than 700 COVID-19 hospitalizations just over a year ago, causing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to designate Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties as areas with high community spread of the virus.”
New COVID-19 Vaccines To Be Available In Mid-September, Officials Say
CNN (8/25, Goodman) reported, “Covid-19 vaccines that have been tweaked to teach the body how to fend off the current crop of circulating variants are now expected to land in drugstores and clinics in mid-September, CDC and FDA officials said.” The officials “spoke Thursday about the US government’s preparations for the fall and winter respiratory virus season on the condition that they not be named.” The FDA “is expected to give its nod to the updated vaccines in a few weeks.”
