Difficulties in convincing public to get a fourth shot

How do you convince a skeptical public to get a fourth shot? The expected green light for a second coronavirus booster shot poses a challenge to the Biden administration, which will need to work overtime to convince a public that has largely decided to move on Nathaniel Weixel TheHill

The expected green light for a second coronavirus booster shot poses a challenge to the Biden administration, which will need to work overtime to convince a public that has largely decided to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both Pfizer and Moderna have filed for emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration for a fourth dose of their respective vaccines, citing evidence that protection from the third shot has decreased enough to warrant a fourth dose.

Yet the nation's vaccination and booster rates have dropped to record lows, just as experts and officials are bracing for the possibility of another wave of infections from the BA.2 subvariant of omicron.

The BA.2 version of omicron is much more transmissible than the original variant. Combined with relaxed precautions like indoor masking and waning immunity among those who have not received a vaccine booster, cases have risen sharply in Europe in the past few weeks, and the U.S. could follow shortly.

The omicron subvariant is responsible for about 35 percent of all cases in the country. In some regions though, like the northeast, it is responsible for the majority of infections.

Federal health officials are reportedly poised to authorize a fourth dose of coronavirus vaccine for adults age 50 and older as soon as this week. A fourth shot is already authorized for the immunocompromised.

But the issues that plagued the administration during the first booster campaign loom large, and officials are likely eager to avoid the same pitfalls.

Chaotic and at times disparate messages from administration health officials culminated in a complicated set of recommendations about who should be getting booster shots, and why, which experts said helped depress enthusiasm.

“I think that some of the low uptake of boosters, especially amongst people who would benefit, the high risk population, is because that message has been diluted,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. ...