The Seattle Times: About 30% of fully vaccinated Americans have gotten boosted; omicron could speed things up

From The Seattle Times: In public remarks in recent days, federal and state officials have implored people to get boosted as soon as they can. But public health experts and behavioral scientists say uncertainty about who needs boosters and how they help may explain why uptake isn’t higher. Still, they say booster numbers can rise, especially as messaging strengthens around the those doses amid concern about the omicron variant. “Uncertainty and confusion is always going to translate into lower uptake,” said Alison Buttenheim, a behavioral scientist who studies vaccine acceptance at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. “It’s pretty easy to say, ‘Oh I don’t need one, or I don’t know if I need one, I’ll wait until I get a clearer signal.’ “ In late November, federal regulators authorized Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccine boosters for all adults. Before that expansion, federal guidelines said boosters were for those 65 and older, as well as for those at high risk because of underlying health conditions. Adults who had received the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine were eligible two months after vaccination. Read the full story in The Seattle Times.