The urgency is due to the explosive spread of the latest Omicron variants — BA.4 and BA.5 — now responsible for more than 80% of all new COVID cases, according to the CDC.
"If you have not gotten a vaccine shot in the year 2022, go get one now. It could save your life," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator.
The urgency is due to the explosive spread of the latest Omicron variants — BA.4 and BA.5 — now responsible for more than 80% of all new COVID cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "BA.4 and BA.5 are our most immune evading variants yet," said Dr. Celine Gounder, editor-at-large of Kaiser Health News.
COVID transmission levels are currently high in much of the West, the Southeast and parts of the Northeast. Many of those cases are reinfections. In the past, it was expected that if a person contracted COVID in the past 90 days, they were protected against reinfection. "The virus is mutating so quickly and rapidly," Gounder said."It is changing so dramatically, your immune system will have a harder time fighting off this current wave. We are already seeing an increase in hospitalizations. The good news is that fewer people are ending up in the ICU.
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