COVID Booster Shot Updates, Poverty as a Leading Cause of Death, & Measles (again)
COVID Booster Shot Updates, Poverty as a Leading Cause of Death, & Measles (again)
Three Things Thursday -- the Friday edition
Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.
This week’s Three Things are coming at you a day late because I choose to spend yesterday outside and with friends. The weather here in NW PA can change on a dime. On Monday there was snow and hail; yesterday it was 80 and sunny.1 Yesterday morning I woke up and went to yoga. Afterward, I met a friend for coffee, ran back to campus for a meeting, met friends for a working lunch meeting, and then took a walk with another friend. I didn’t even open my computer until 5 pm (amazing). The sunshine and time with individuals who make me happy were just what I needed.
Today I am playing catch up.
The three things that I am paying attention to this week are the new COVID booster updates from the CDC/FDA, a new study identifying poverty as a leading cause of death, and a new case of measles in Ohio (a little too close to home).
Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Second COVID Booster Shots Approved (for some)
Earlier this week, the CDC and FDA approved a second bivalent booster shot for individuals who are 65 years of age or older OR who are immunocompromised.
For those 65+, you can receive your second booster four months after your first booster.
And for those who are immunocompromised, you can receive your second booster two months after your first.
For those of us who do not qualify for a second booster, we wait.
It is likely that an annual booster will become available in the fall (rumors are swirling that FDA and CDC will meet in June or July to discuss/approve annual boosters). As we wait for information about annual boosters, it is important to remember that the virus is becoming less virulent AND our immune systems do have defenses against COVID from previous vaccinations and infections. Public health surveillance data demonstrate that receiving two COVID boosters a year benefits individuals who are 65+. The data do not show the need for two booster shots per year for healthy individuals under 65.
Poverty Is a Leading Cause of Death
On Tuesday, researchers at the University of California — Riverside published a study that estimates that POVERTY2 was associated with 183,000 deaths in 2019 (among individuals 15 years of age and older). To reach this conclusion, the research team analyzed income data from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and death data from household surveys from the Cross-National Equivalent File. They validated deaths using a database kept by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.
They found that only heart disease, cancer, and smoking kill more people than poverty. Poverty caused more deaths than obesity, diabetes, drug overdoses, suicides, firearms, and homicides.
Poverty must be a public health priority.
And it may be time to declare poverty an epidemic.
According to Dr. Bill Foege — esteemed epidemiologist, former head of the CDC, and the individual credited with eradicating smallpox —
“The single biggest problem we have in public health is poverty.”
The research out of the University of California — Riverside quantifies this.
There is no escaping the reality that if we want to create healthy communities, we must end poverty.
Measles in Ohio (AGAIN)
Following my Putting the Public Back in Public Health presentation earlier this month, I was asked what keeps me awake at night these days. Without skipping a beat I said MISINFORMATION and the fact that I fear a measles outbreak in my community.
With the global vaccination rate declining and vaccination rates among kindergarteners in the US also declining, we may not be able to avoid a measles outbreak. Thinking about living through a measles outbreak keeps me up at night!
The news from earlier this week that an unvaccinated individual in Summit Couty Ohio (home to Akron) was diagnosed with measles left me unsettled.
Measles is the most contagious virus that we know of. And the long-term health effects of measles are scary (and quite common).
Knowing that measles is spreading in Ohio — just an hour from my home — makes me nervous. With vaccination rates on the decline, we are playing with fire. More and more people lack immunity to the virus and soon enough an outbreak will happen.
Measles is preventable with the MMR vaccine, which is safe and HIGHLY effective.
If you or your kid (or grandkid) has missed a shot or two during the past year, wait no more. Measles is spreading in our communities. The only way to prevent disease is to have immunity — through previous infection or vaccination.
Get vaccinated!
My hometown in NW PA is beautiful in the spring. Clear blue sky!
People living in poverty have incomes less than 50% of the U.S. median income, the researchers noted. (In 2021, the median household income was $70,784 per household, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)