U.S. Passes 95 Million COVID Cases as Biden Admin Proposes Annual Boosters

The United States has now passed 95 million COVID cases. According to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, there have been 95,017,148 cases of COVID-19 resulting in 1,048,941 deaths representing a mortality rate of 1.1%. Hospitalizations continue to decline. After topping 40,000 hospitalizations in late July, the most recent figure is just over 30,000 (30,162) according to Our World in Data. 

Yesterday, the Biden Administration proposed moving towards annual booster shots as is currently done with the flu. White House COVID Response Coordinator Ashish Jha said during a press briefing, "Barring any new variant curve balls, for a large majority of Americans we are moving to a point where a single, annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection against serious illness all year." 

While 68.02% of Americans are fully vaccinated, this puts us 65th in the world just behind India and just ahead of Sri Lanka. As of month ago, half of those fully vaccinated who are eligible for a booster had not seen fit to get one. Then there is the lingering issue of unvaccinated Americans which comprise a third of the population. At this point, this group will have to learn the hard way if they learn at all.

Nevertheless, COVID is far more manageable now than it was 20 months ago. Hopefully annual booster shots will help keep it manageable.