Last year, when COVID vaccines were still free, barely one in five Americans rolled up their sleeves for the latest dose.
Now that some people will have to pay $100-plus for the shot, health officials expect even weaker demand when the next version of the vaccine comes out this fall.
Meanwhile, a surprisingly strong summer surge of COVID cases sweeps across Kansas and Missouri.
As students head back to school, more people are testing positive , ending up in emergency rooms and getting hospitalized with the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Kansas City, the reported case rate at the end of July was more than double the same week last year and edging toward last winter’s rate. At the same time, wastewater testing in Kansas and Missouri showed viral activity that surpassed national and regional levels.
Of course, the virus is nothing like it used to be. At the height of the pandemic in January 2021, the CDC reported that almost 30% of weekly deaths in the U.S. could be attributed to COVID . For the week of Aug. 3, the disease was blamed for 1.5% of U.S. deaths.