TAMPA, Fla. — COVID-19 cases are rising again, but there’s still confusion over who should get them.
“A lot of people just don’t know what they should be doing,” said Dr. Jill Roberts, Associate Professor at the USF College of Public Health.
The latest numbers from the CDC show that only about 16% of adults in the United States have received the latest COVID-19 booster.
The vaccination rate is much lower than experts hoped for.
“Part of that may be difficulty in actually getting it out there. There's a lot of miscommunication about who should take it, who should not take it,” said Roberts.
Health officials believe the initial confusion created a lasting impact.
Officially, the CDC recommends that all people 6 months old and older stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.
“In our most vulnerable population, that’s very, very important. So our elderly patients, our patients with immune-compromised or those caring or living with those individuals,” said Dr. Laura Arline, Chief Quality Officer for BayCare.
However, some doctors believe that the reality for everyone else is that it’s more nuanced for each person, especially when it comes to kids.
“In the pediatric population, high-risk kids would have a much more significant benefit to it, but I see really low benefit at this point to children, especially if they’ve had COVID or a previous vaccine because they have the immunity,” said Dr. David Berger, a certified pediatrician at Wholistic Pediatrics and Family Care.
If a child is healthy and isn’t around anyone over 65 or who’s immunocompromised, some experts said they may be fine without the shot.
“There’s no doubt that the COVID vaccines, at least for the short term, do keep people out of hospitals and worse. But also recognizing that if it isn't an immunologically compromised, a chemo patient, or some other genetic immunodeficiency, most kids are healthy, and overall, the majority of kids don’t get hospitalized,” said Berger.
Locally, doctors aren’t currently seeing much of an increase in kids being hospitalized with COVID-19 infections.
“In the last few months, it sort of stayed steady, more of a plateau. Maybe a little bit of an increase recently, but nothing significant,” said Dr. Sara Kirby, Medical Director for AdventHealth Tampa's Pediatric ER.
However, doctors agree the vaccine does still offer protection and reduces the chance of severe disease.
“The COVID shots are now pretty much widely available. It’s a good match between the vaccine and the strains that are going around, so I would recommend it,” said Roberts.
“The vaccines are safe, and they are effective against the current variants. So it is worth getting,” said Arline.
Overall, they recommend talking to your doctor to see what’s best for your family.