Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Southern Nevada public health officials, recognizing vaccine burnout, continue to push COVID shots

Children Receive COVID-19 Vaccinations at SNHD

Wade Vandervort

Dario Alonso, 10, receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination from registered nurse KJ Dionisio at the Southern Nevada Health District Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021.

Dr. Cortland Lohff has seen plenty of familiar faces at the Southern Nevada Health District’s main campus returning to complete the COVID-19 vaccination regimen and get the latest booster.

Lohff, chief medical officer at the Health District, wishes more residents shared that mentality.

A declining trend in booster vaccinations suggests that people in Clark County may be holding off on taking those extra shots.

As of this week, about 55% of the population in Clark County has completed the initial two-shot vaccine, according to the Nevada Health Response. Only 37% have gotten “follow up doses” despite the consistent presence of COVID cases in the community.

While more than 80% of the U.S. population has had at least one vaccine dose, only 16% of those eligible have received the latest boosters authorized in August, according to The Associated Press.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed that most adults and children should get a once-a-year shot — similar to the annual flu vaccine — to protect against mutating strains of COVID. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers someone fully vaccinated upon receiving the primary series of vaccinations, but “up-to-date” after having completed their primary series and gotten their boosters.

“To a point, there is some vaccination burnout,” said Dr. Melva Thompson-Robinson, a professor of nursing at UNLV. “As adults, the COVID-19 vaccination, outside of the flu shot, requires multiple boosters (and) as of right now, it is unclear how often we will have to get COVID-19 booster shots.”

Lohff said vaccine hesitancy may be a strong factor in the low vaccination rates — especially in children.

He said that older adults tend to show more interest in becoming boosted compared to young people, possibly because booster doses for young children were only recently approved by the FDA.

“When you look at the younger age group, and in particular the kids who are less than 5 years of age, the rates of that age group receiving a booster dose is small in comparison to the older age groups,” Lohff said. “I think there’s still a lot of hesitancy and reluctance for parents to get their kids that booster dose.”

The CDC recommends that children 6 months or older receive both the primary series vaccines and updated booster, if eligible. Only 16% of children aged 5 or older have been vaccinated with the most recent booster. In Clark County just 3.4% of kids ages 5-11 and 9.6% for people ages 12-19 have received at least the first dose. There is no data available in Clark County for the most recent booster for children.

“I think there’s a lot of reasons why we’re seeing what we’re seeing (like) lack of education, lack of awareness of the availability of the booster doses as well as their effectiveness,” Lohff said.

Thompson-Robinson believes any breakthrough cases for those people already vaccinated could be a factor alongside the public health messaging, confusion on booster side effects, vaccine conspiracy theories, and a general distrust of federal agencies like the CDC. Additionally, many places in the world have emerged from the pandemic with few restrictions like facial coverings in public, signaling the yearslong struggle to contain the virus spread is now an afterthought.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that the organization didn’t “communicate effectively” with the public about COVID-19 and added that dropping public health guidelines may have stirred distrust and a more relaxed attitude toward COVID, Thompson-Robinson said.

“To a point, the relaxing of the mandates for social distancing, wearing a mask, etc., have led some people to believe that COVID-19 is not a problem that everyone needs to be vigilant about,” Thompson-Robinson said. “Since people feel like they don’t need to be vigilant about COVID-19, this attitude can impact their feelings about getting vaccinated.”

There’s also the problem of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Anti-vaxxers have even used incidents — like the collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest during a game Jan. 2 — as ways to spout ant-vaccine rhetoric, Thompson-Robinson said. (Hamlin’s collapse had nothing to do with his vaccination status, his doctors have said.)

Thompson-Robinson said the pandemic had “brought to light… the levels of mistrust that some people have for our health care system, governmental agencies, the media and others who promoted the COVID-19 vaccines.” That – paired with “unclear” potential side effects – has fueled the anti-vaccine wave.

But both Lohff and Thompson-Robinson encourage the public to become vaccinated if they can, saying that “the bottom line” is that the booster at least protects you from previous strains of the COVID-19 virus.

This not only helps “prime” your immune system but can also prevent severe infection, hospitalization, or death, Lohff said.

Lohff said the Health District had “plenty” of vaccines available for both the primary doses and the boosters. The district has clinics scattered throughout the region, and many pharmacies also offer the vaccine.

The Health District also “(encourages) people to wear a mask when they’re out in public” and practice “stringent hand-washing” to avoid transmitting viruses.

“With new variants that emerge, we’re always worried about whether or not the vaccine will protect people against that, but having the vaccine is much better than not having the vaccine in terms of protecting yourself against infection,” Lohff said. “We really encourage people to get whatever vaccination that they need, whether it be a primary vaccination series or their booster dose.”