Travis Mayfield: Get your updated COVID-19 booster, and make it a habit

A new COVID-19 booster was just approved by the FDA Thursday for everyone six months of age and older.

But despite mountains of evidence that the vaccines save lives, many of you reading right now won’t bother getting one. Even within the most at-risk population — seniors 75 years old and older — just 40% of that age group received last year’s updated boosters, according to The New York Times.

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I keep hearing folks saying that COVID-19 is now just something we have to live with, something that evolves and changes and waxes and wanes. I hear it compared to the flu.

I don’t even disagree with that assessment, but I want to underline a key phrase: COVID-19 is something we have to live with.

In July, COVID-19 was killing an estimated 600 people per week. Sure, that’s down from the first years of the pandemic, but it is still way too high — twice what it was last winter. That statistic involves 600 people who were loved by others, who had lives, who had dreams, who could have otherwise lived.

It’s easy to find blame for this vaccine complacency. Misinformation and anti-vax hysteria exploded online during lockdowns, and it still hasn’t gone away. It continues to chip away at otherwise rational people’s healthcare choices. Even if you want a shot, it can still be confusing and a hassle to find updated COVID-19 vaccines and locations to get them. The day-after side effects still suck, especially if you have trouble taking a sick day.

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Finally, if you are in assisted living, it’s essentially you or your family’s responsibility to get a vaccination due to staffing shortages.

One big solution to all this could be a major mindset shift — to roll the annual flu vaccination into the annual COVID-19 vaccination. Several vaccine makers are currently testing a single shot to do both. If that gets approved and those free school, office, grocery store and nursing home flu clinics simply switch to combo shots, it could go a long way in widespread habitual adoption.

Still, until that time comes, it’s up to every one of us to not only protect our health, but protect the health of others who could be exposed to our germs and to search out an updated COVID-19 vaccine.

Travis Mayfield is a local media personality and fills in as a host on KIRO Newsradio