COVID’s Summer Surge : 1A : NPR

A woman points to her arm to receive her booster shot at a Covid vaccination and testing site decorated for Cinco de Mayo at Ted Watkins Park in Los Angeles.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

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FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

A woman points to her arm to receive her booster shot at a Covid vaccination and testing site decorated for Cinco de Mayo at Ted Watkins Park in Los Angeles.

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

COVID is surging across the globe for the fourth consecutive summer. In the United States, the latest tracking data from the CDC shows a 12 percent rise in hospitalizations due to the virus.

Dr. Paul Offit is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He’s also on the FDA Vaccine Advisory Panel.

He says the rise in COVID cases due to summer travel is expected. The severity of illness for most people is very low relative to previous summers.

“The people that are getting hospitalized [for COVID] are who you would expect, the elderly and particularly those 75 years and older,” he told 1A. “The public health response should really be focused on helping the most vulnerable people at this stage.”

In the latest installment of In Good Health, we learn about the slate of new vaccines coming out in this fall for the flu, COVID, and RSV and explore how prepared the United States is for future pandemics.

Joining our panel is; Senior Fellow and Editor-At-Large for Public Health at Kaiser Health News Dr. Celine Gounder, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and member of the F.D.A.’s Vaccine Advisory Committee Dr. Paul Offit, and Virologist and Affiliate at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security Angela Rasmussen.

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