This is a good time for COVID booster

COVID-19 is a powerful enemy, its threat rendered more potent by an unlikely accomplice–ourselves.

Whether sparked by politics or disregard for the warnings of health officials, complacency and defiance among some members of the population have led to spikes of the virus since the pandemic struck the U.S. in 2020.

Vaccines do work in preventing the spread of COVID, and with a new wave of the virus, it’s a great time to get the latest COVID-19 vaccine.

Hospital admissions for COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, increased about 16 percent in the week ending Aug. 26, compared with the previous week, and deaths from the virus increased at roughly the same rate during the same period — nearly 18 percent. For the week ending Sept. 9, 89 people were hospitalized with COVID in San Antonio.

The bad news, however, is mitigated by some good news.

COVID boosters are now available throughout the country, free to most Americans through private insurers and the Bridge Access Program, a new CDC initiative for the uninsured.

Free COVID tests are also available online through COVIDTests.gov.

Perhaps most importantly, the statistics on the number of incidents–and deaths–from the virus are not as gloomy as they may first appear.

While COVID cases increased at the end of August, the numbers remained relatively low, averaging about 600 deaths per week, compared with about 3,000 per week in late August 2022. The figure was even worse in late August 2021–about 14,000 per week.

The latest figures, while not ideal, indicate the current wave may not be as severe as initially feared.

“What I think we’re seeing is the virus continuing to evolve and then leading to waves of infection, hopefully mostly mild in severity,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, head of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

The virus has shifted to an endemic phase, with health care systems no longer overwhelmed by a disease spreading exponentially.

That does not mean we should relax. Some segments of the population –older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, for example–still face risks from infection and COVID complications.

“Octogenarians comprise the highest-risk group for complications following COVID infection,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University.

The virus, most health experts agree, seems to be settling into a stage in which people of all ages should get vaccinated once a year, as they do with the flu. While vaccines will not necessarily prevent a COVID infection, they do reduce the chances of infection and symptoms.

We have made tremendous progress since 2020, a confusing, chaotic, tense and polarizing time. In many ways, life has resumed in familiar ways. But this is thanks to vaccines. We are incredibly fortunate to live at a time of rapid vaccine development. Celebrate by getting your booster, and while you are at it, get a flu shot, too.