Nearly 4-in-10 Households Already Hit With Respiratory Illnesses This Winter - Horowitz
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
The so-called tripledemic has cut a wide swath through American households this winter. Nearly 4-in-10 (38%) American households reported that they had at least one person come down with the flu, COVID-19 or Respiratory Syncytia Virus (RSV) over the holidays or in January, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) national survey. This breaks down as follows: 27% of households had someone who was sick with the flu, 15% of households; included someone with COVID-19; and 10% of households contained a person with RSV (These percentages total more than 38% because in a subset of impacted households, more than one of these illnesses were contracted).
The combination of word of mouth and prominent media coverage about the spread of these viruses has raised a substantial level of awareness, resulting in a sizeable minority of the nation taking some preventive steps. “Nearly half of adults (46%) say the news of COVID-19, flu, and RSV have made them more likely to take at least one protective measure,” documented KFF. These include wearing a mask in public, avoiding large gatherings, traveling less, or avoiding dining indoors at restaurants. Among the vulnerable immunocompromised, a significantly higher percentage (63%) indicate “the news of the viruses spreading has made them more likely to take at least one of these precautions.”
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Among those that remain unvaccinated for COVID and have yet to get a flu shot this winter, however, most say “the viruses spreading have not made much of a difference in their willingness to get these vaccines.” In fact, there has been only a modest increase in the number of people who say they have gotten the bivalent booster with 28% of Americans now reporting they have received it as compared to the 22% of Americans who said they received it when asked in December. There is some good news on this front: 52% of immunocompromised adults and 47% of older Americans, those 65 and over, indicate they have received the bivalent booster.
On the other hand, Republicans still remain largely resistant to vaccinations, with only 1-in-5 reporting getting the bivalent booster. Continuing a well-established pattern, twice as many Democrats as Republicans have received the bivalent booster. Roughly half of Republicans say they will not get the bivalent booster unless it is required.
This continuing vaccine hesitancy, stemming in large measure by the misinformation and disinformation communicated at a saturation level on Fox News and other media sources trusted by Republicans, has resulted in a disproportionate share of Republicans dying from COVID-19. A Yale School of Public Health study finds “substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available.” Specifically, post the availability of vaccines, “the excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 pp (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 pp (153% of the Democrat excess death rate),” wrote the study’s authors.
While COVID deaths are dramatically down from their pandemic peak, we are still losing about 600 people every day in the United States. A substantial portion of these deaths could be avoided, if we could increase the number of people getting vaccinated and boosted. Despite all of our understandable exhaustion with the topic, it is still essential to continue with and improve on our efforts to persuade those Americans who remain vaccine-hesitant to get vaccinated and to remind the rest of us to keep up with our vaccinations.
That is the well-trodden, common sense, evidence-based path to better overall health outcomes.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
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