The COVID-19 case numbers have been dropping, which is always good news. But Hawaii residents’ interest in bolstering their immunizations against the infectious disease has all but dried up, too, and that is a more worrisome sign than some people might think.
There is hope for turning that around and making more gains in beating back this wearisome pandemic — if only people could be persuaded to take the steps. That could be easier soon, with approval anticipated for a booster shot designed specifically for the omicron BA.5 subvariant of the virus that is so infectious now.
“Soon” could come as early as just after the Labor Day holiday. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have submitted applications for their boosters to the Food and Drug Administration, and reportedly confidence in their imminent approval is high.
State authorities are still waiting for some key details, said Department of Health (DOH) spokesman Brooks Baehr. For example, he said, there is expected to be a recommended wait time between a person’s completion of the initial pair of basic vaccinations and when they should get this new booster. However, DOH has to await FDA approval and the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he added.
The new boosters are what are called bivalent vaccines, meaning they address both the dominant BA.5 subvariant and the ancestral strain. But they’re being presented as boosters, Baehr said, so the current assumption is that a basic vaccination is still required first. Pfizer proposes that its booster be authorized for anyone 12 or older; the minimum age presented for the Moderna shot would be 18.
Hawaii has a relatively high level of baseline immunity. In addition to whatever immunity people have acquired in recent infection during the ebbing spring-summer surge, 77.3% of the total statewide population completed the primary series of shots.
The uptake falls off a cliff from there. Only 44.7% received the first booster, and an appallingly low 11.5% got the second.
Why is that?
There are lots of possible, even rational reasons people may cite. The general sense was that people were not flooding the hospitals with COVID-19 cases and that the omicron subvariants were not nearly as virulent or life-threatening. So the pandemic exhaustion took precedence, and people let down their guard.
The problem was, the hospitals were busy, after all, largely with patients suffering from other ailments. One complication the super-spreader subvariant caused was sidelining health-care professionals, whose COVID-19 absences put the hospitals under staffing strain.
Also, those who felt less vulnerable did get infected and may have passed it to others less resistant to the disease. The death count from COVID-19 has remained elevated, week after week.
Finally, research indicates that the risk of developing the “long COVID” syndrome increases with repeat infections. And even if that outcome is avoided, many of those who got sick discovered that recovery was a rockier process than they had expected.
They are well enough to work, for example, but not at 100%. That not-quite-right feeling can disrupt enjoyment of everyday activities and special plans, such as travel.
In other words: COVID-19 is still something to be avoided, if at all possible — a first-time infection or a repeat bout. It’s wise to steer clear of unnecessary trouble.
Once the new-and-improved shots become available, holdouts should consider getting off the fence, as this pandemic snakes its way toward becoming an endemic condition. These boosters can help get Hawaii there.
