The Booster Bulletin: Your Weekly Dose of Immunization News

We’re committed to sharing news and information from local and national media about COVID-19, available vaccines, and immunization-related topics. Each week we’ll continue to review clips from across the U.S., from various news outlets and platforms, and bring you ten timely and relevant links.

“Fauci says he hopes FDA will authorize Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for kids under 5 in the next month” CNBC (January 21, 2022) – “White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said he hopes the Food and Drug Administration approves Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for children under 5 years old in the next month.”

“Booster shots in U.S. have strongly protected against severe disease from omicron variant, CDC studies show” The Washington Post (January 21, 2022) – “Vaccine boosters provide robust protection against severe disease from the omicron variant in the United States, according to three reports released Friday that offer real-world data showing the shots are effective at keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital.”

“Two Studies Detail the Dangers of COVID in Pregnancy” WebMD (January 19, 2022) – “Two new studies show how COVID-19 threatens the health of pregnant people and their newborn infants. A study conducted in Scotland showed that unvaccinated pregnant people who got COVID were much more likely to have a stillborn infant or one that dies in the first 28 days. The study also found that pregnant women infected with COVID died and needed hospitalization at a much higher rate than vaccinated women who got pregnant.”

“Flu Vaccination Prevents Severe Illness in Children” Infectious Disease Special Edition (January 19, 2022) – “It is looking like influenza vaccination is still a good bet, even if the vaccine is not a good match to circulating strains. Influenza vaccination protected children against serious illness even when they were infected with a strain that was antigenically different from ones contained in the vaccine, according to a recent report that looked at data from the 2019-2020 influenza season.”

“It’s Not Too Late to Get a Flu Shot” Daily Press (January 19, 2022) – “Influenza (flu) is a contagious respiratory illness causes by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs. People at higher risk of developing serious complications, including those with certain chronic health conditions like asthma, COPD, heart disease and diabetes, should get a flu vaccine as soon as possible. Getting the flu vaccine reduces the risk of serious flu complications, including hospitalization and death.”  

“Vaccine Hesitancy: Why Language Matters” Medical News Today (January 18, 2022) – “The World Health Organization (WHO) describes vaccine hesitancy—delaying or refusing vaccination—as a ‘top 10 global health issue.’ As research shows, this hesitancy has led to new outbreaks of diseases such as polio and measles. Some of the main causes of hesitancy about COVID-19 vaccination include a lack of public trust in the safety and efficacy of vaccines and distrust in government and health organizations. Despite the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in many areas of the world, hesitancy remains a leading cause of low vaccine uptake.”

“So Your Partner Won’t Let You Vaccinate the Kids. What Can You Do?” Fatherly (January 16, 2022) – “As more children are now eligible to receive the COVID vaccine, more and more parents who share custody of their children are fighting over whether their kid will get vaccinated. 'One in every five cases hitting my desk these days includes a disagreement about giving the COVID-19 vaccine to children,' says California family law attorney Brent Kaspar.” 

“Halting Progress and Happy Accidents: How mRNA Vaccines Were Made” New York Times (January 15, 2022) – “Thousands of miles from Dr. Barney Graham’s lab in Bethesda, Md., a frightening new coronavirus had jumped from camels to humans in the Middle East, killing one out of every three people infected. An expert on the world’s most intractable viruses, Dr. Graham had been working for months to develop a vaccine, but had gotten nowhere…Together with other chance breakthroughs that seemed insignificant at the time, it would lead eventually to the mRNA vaccines now protecting hundreds of millions of people from Covid-19.”

“Pregnant People Are Still Not Getting Vaccinated against COVID” Wired (January 14, 2022) – “According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of January 1, just over 40 percent of pregnant people in the United States between age 18 and 49 were fully vaccinated prior to pregnancy or during their pregnancy, compared with 66 percent of the general population over the age of 5. For Black pregnant people, the figure plummets to about 25 percent. Data for the United Kingdom is a little less up to date, but in August 2021 just 22 percent of women who gave birth were fully vaccinated.” 

“A Doctor Shares What to Know About Your Child’s Antibodies After They’ve Had COVID” Popsugar ( January 12, 2022) – “As the Omicron variant races through homes, daycares, and schools at alarming rates, parents are trying to see a brighter side in their young children contracting COVID – namely, that their kiddos now have antibodies and are potentially safe from catching it again.”

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