Early data shows that just over 11 million Americans, or about 4 percent of those eligible, have received the new bivalent COVID-19 booster shots, according to a report of The Washington Post, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Despite projections of a fall and winter COVID-19 wave with the potential to sicken millions and kill tens of thousands, few Americans get new COVID booster shots, said the report.
About half of Americans say they have heard little or nothing about the shots, according to a recent tracking poll by Kaiser Family Foundation.
An analysis by the Commonwealth Fund forecasts that about 90,000 COVID-19 deaths could be prevented this fall and winter if more people in the United States get their booster by the end of the year.
The lagging booster rate is blamed as a major contributor to the high COVID-19 mortality rate in the United States last winter and the continuing deaths of about 400 Americans on average each day caused by the virus.