Campaign urges people to get COVID-19 booster shots if eligible

BOSTON - There's no doubt that the COVID vaccines continue to save lives but a woefully low number of people have received the recommended boosters.

An analysis by the Commonwealth Fund found that if 80% of those eligible to receive a booster dose do so this fall, we could prevent about 90,000 deaths and almost a million hospitalizations in this country over the next six months.

We could also save $56 billion in medical costs.

However, if people continue to resist getting boosters at the current rate, we could experience 1,200 deaths a day by March.

Coronavirus

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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