Aimee Pugh Bernard, PhD

Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 are taking hold and may springboard us into a new infection surge. We can protect ourselves and others by staying up-to-date on vaccination, masking up when community transmission is high or if you’re at high risk, and staying home when sick.

Almost 20 million more people globally are alive today because they got vaccinated against Covid, according to a new study—in just the first year vaccines were available!

A new CDC analysis found that severe illness and death from Covid were extremely rare in vaccinated people. Among 1,228,664 fully vaccinated people across the US, 185 (0.015%) had severe illness and 36 (0.0033%) died. Covid vaccines are extremely safe and remarkably effective.

Yes, we're about to be hit with a tidal wave of Omicron infections. But we have bulwarks - vaccinations, prior immunity, ability to mask, tests, treatment, and more. These should enable us to keep schools open, the economy progressing, and not let Omicron dominate our lives.

The US vaccination program has so far prevented nearly 1.1 million deaths from Covid and more than 10.3 million hospitalizations, according to a new model.

We can’t allow the virus to further divide and conquer us. Instead, we must collaborate for a safer, healthier, and better protected world. It’s humans vs. microbes. We’re all in this together.

Vaccination trains your immune system to recognize and kill the virus. Even if you get a breakthrough infection, you're less likely to get severely ill or to spread Covid to others.

Immunity after a Covid infection differs significantly from person to person, and depends in part on how old you are, how healthy you are, and how severe your infection was. Even if you've already had Covid, vaccination boosts your defenses against reinfection. Get vaccinated.

Boosters may benefit the people for whom they're recommended, but the reason there are so many hospitalizations and deaths in the US is because there are still close to 70 million people who haven't gotten their first vaccine dose.

Uncontrolled spread anywhere is a potential threat everywhere, and there's no reason to think that Delta is the worst the virus can deal us. That's why it's so important that we scale up vaccine manufacturing, especially of mRNA vaccines, to protect the world.

If you’ve recovered from Covid, you have some protection from reinfection. But that protection can differ significantly from person to person so it’s hard to know how strong or lasting it is—especially if your illness was mild. That’s why it’s important for you to get vaccinated.

Whether we like it or not, we truly are all connected—our individual choice to get vaccinated affects the people we interact with and the people THEY interact with. The more of us get vaccinated, the safer we all are.

If you're vaccinated and exposed to Covid, your immune system shows up ready to fight and win. But if you're unvaccinated and get infected, your immune system is forced to fight a dangerous opponent without proper training.

The reason we have nearly 2,000 deaths a day in the US and tens of thousands of people in our hospitals is because too many people haven't gotten vaccinated. Our vaccines are working—they remain remarkably effective, even against Delta.

Decades of research went into the development of Covid vaccines. They were proven to be remarkably safe and highly effective in large clinical trials. Hundreds of millions of doses have now been administered globally. Protect yourself and those around you—get vaccinated.