By Jennifer Rigby and Julie Steenhuysen
LONDON/CHICAGO Jan 12 (Reuters) - Low vaccination rates against the latest versions of COVID-19 and influenza are putting pressure on healthcare systems this winter, leading public health officials told Reuters.
In the United States, several European countries, and other parts of the world, there have been reports of rising hospitalizations linked to respiratory infections in recent weeks. Death rates have also ticked up among older adults in some regions, but far below the COVID pandemic peak.
Spain’s government has reinstated mask-wearing requirements at healthcare facilities, as have some U.S. hospital networks.
“Too many people are in need of serious medical care for flu, for COVID, when we can prevent it,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness.
She cited “incredibly low” vaccination rates against flu and COVID in many countries this season, as the world tries to move past the pandemic and its restrictions.
Governments have struggled to communicate the risks still posed by COVID and the benefits of vaccination since a global public health emergency was declared over in May 2023, infectious disease experts and health officials said.
Only 19.4% of U.S. adults have received this season’s COVID vaccine based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention’s National Immunization Survey, despite a recommendation that all adults get an updated shot to protect against serious illness.
That compares roughly with 17% of adults who got the bivalent booster in the 2022-2023 season, based on actual vaccine data reported to the CDC by states.
Nearly half of U.S. adults over 18 got a flu shot this season (44.9%), roughly the same as last year (44%), according to the CDC.
“We don't think enough people have gotten the updated COVID vaccine,” CDC director Mandy Cohen said in an interview. “Folks still aren't understanding that COVID is still a more severe disease than flu.”
VACCINE FATIGUE
Flu represented 5.2% of U.S. emergency visits compared with 3% for COVID in the week ended Dec. 30. Yet COVID accounted for 10.5 out of 100,000 hospitalizations in that time, compared with 6.1 per 100,000 for flu.
Most of the updated shots being used in the U.S. and European Union are made by Pfizer with German partner BioNTech, or Moderna
In Europe, flu is circulating at a higher rate than COVID, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said. In total, 24% of a representative sample of tests came back positive in the last week of 2023, up from 19% a fortnight earlier.