Many Americans are likely to take a hard pass on the new COVID booster shot unless mandated amid increasing evidence of negative health outcomes and a growing loss of confidence in public officials, according to an expert.
“Public opinion has swung so hard against the vaccines that I can’t imagine a scenario where a significant amount of people are going to sign up for another shot,” Dr. Kevin Bass, a medical researcher and immunology specialist, told The Epoch Times. “If people have the choice, they are going to say no.”
The original COVID vaccines were taken by more than 80 percent of Americans after officials pledged that the shots would be effective in both preventing contraction and stopping the spread of the virus. However, once it was discovered that the shots didn’t work as promised, interest in the subsequent booster shots decreased dramatically. The last time the administration pushed a new booster in the fall of 2022 only 17 percent of Americans opted in.
Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation. As of Wednesday morning, the V-safe website states: “Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.”
Concerns also remain over how effective the new booster will be in safeguarding against the new variant. The shot, which is expected to be available in September, was designed to fight the two current COVID strains in circulation. However, whether those strains will remain dominant, or a new COVID variation will usurp it that could be immune to the new booster, like the one currently circulating in Michigan, remains unknown.
Overall, cases of COVID still remain a small fraction of where they were in 2020 and 2021, according to Dr. Bass.
“Right now COVID cases are going up a little bit, but they are still barely a blip in terms of mortality,” said Dr. Bass. “It is still a possibility that we will get a wave at some point, but pretty unlikely.”
However, President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that his administration will “likely” recommend that everyone get a new COVID-19 vaccine.
“I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress, a request for additional funding for a new vaccine—that is necessary, that works,” he said while taking questions from reporters in South Lake Tahoe, California.
“And tentatively, not decided finally yet, tentatively it is recommended—it is likely to be recommended—that everybody get it, no matter whether they got it before,” he added.
In April, the Biden administration announced that the government was spending more than $5 billion to ramp up the development of new COVID vaccines through Project NextGen.
“While our vaccines are still very effective at preventing serious illness and death, they are less capable of reducing infections and transmission over time,” a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said in announcing the project on April 10.
The CDC will be meeting on Sept. 12 when it is expected to issue a strong recommendation for all 300 million Americans over the age of 12 to get boosted.
The administration has signaled that the new shot will not be mandated. However, many fear that if the American people opt out in mass, as many expect, it could lead to growing calls for government action.
“No matter how hard the public pushes back, the call for mandatory vaccines among some in power won’t just go away,” said Dr. Bass. “A lot of these people already wish they had the power to mandate every vaccine to everyone and they aren’t particularly concerned with public opinion.”
In Congress, several members have preemptively made their opposition to any new mandates known.
Rep. Mary Miller posted on X, the social media formerly known as Twitter, on Aug. 19: “I will oppose any effort by Biden to reimpose any COVID mandates on the American people.”
“Biden’s COVID response was an abuse of power fueled by lies. Never again,” she added.
