National decline in Americans receiving COVID-19 boosters concerns students

Many Americans are not getting the updated COVID-19 booster vaccines. As of Oct. 15, only about 15 million Americans received the new Omicron-specific COVID-19 booster vaccines, which were released early this fall.

These updated boosters are bivalent, meaning that they cover two strains of COVID-19 — the original strain that spread in early 2020 and the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Elmhurst University’s COVID-19 Task Force does not have complete data on how many EU students have received the COVID-19 booster vaccines.

Public health professor Erika Davis estimates that some possible reasons as to why Americans are not getting the boosters are a lack of trust in the vaccines, a lack of trust in the government and health organizations, and doubt over whether the vaccines “actually work.” 

EU junior Adrian Cortez shared that the release of the new boosters is new information for him, mainly because he has been focusing on other priorities. 

Photo by- Ryan Windle

However, he said that he has relatives who are at risk for contracting COVID-19, and the fact that many people aren’t getting the boosters concerns him. 

He expressed that he is particularly concerned about the fact that some people refuse to get vaccinated. 

“They’re not only putting themselves at risk but as well as, for example, people like my great grandparents who still live with us,” Cortez said. 

EU senior Samuel Bustamante also didn’t hear about the new boosters until being interviewed by The Leader. After briefly being informed of the new boosters and the fact that many Americans are not getting them, he commented that he hasn’t noticed much promotion of the boosters lately.

“During the pandemic, it was all ‘Get your boosters! Get your shots! Get your shots!’ but as time progressed and everything got to normal, there hasn’t been any advertisement for getting the shots,” Bustamante said. “Or if it has been, it’s just I haven’t really been looking at the news currently, so maybe just my inability of looking at the news [is why I haven’t seen any updates].”

Davis believes that people should be given this information in the simplest terms possible through the platforms they turn to most often.

“The ways in which people primarily get their information, that is where you should share a breakdown of that. So whether that be social media, Facebook, TikToks, or like the news channels, that’s where older individuals get their information,” Davis said. 

Davis continued, “Having someone break it down to make it a little more clear and put it in terms of someone who may just have like an eighth-grade, print education, like [we] need to put it in the simplest terms as possible.”

Both Cortez and Bustamante proposed ideas for how to reach students with information regarding COVID-19 vaccines. 

Cortez suggested that Elmhurst University’s science department could offer information to students. 

“I believe having the science department play a huge role and a way to advocate for science literacy would be a great way to move forward,” Cortez said. 

Bustamante mentioned that he often checks his email and felt that more email communication from the school regarding health and safety information could be a smart move. 

The Wellness Center declined The Leader’s requests for an interview. However, on behalf of the Wellness Center staff, Director of Student Health Emily Bernadi made a comment in an email to The Leader:

“We would like to encourage students to make sure they are educating themselves about the topic through evidence-based research rather than social media or hearsay as there is a lot of misinformation spread on COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines,” Bernadi said. “It is always best to try to be as educated as possible when making personal medical decisions.”