CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Rachel Hall, a resident of Corpus Christi, was at the vaccine clinic at La Palmera Mall getting her daughters the COVID-19 vaccine booster. She got her booster last month, and got vaccinated against COVID-19 last March, saying it was a very personal decision.
“We’ve had to cry many times for those who have passed on that we loved that passed on from COVID,” Hall said.
The CDC announced last weekthat during the delta variant surge, there were more COVID-19 cases among people who were vaccinated alone than people who were previously infected.
Remembering her family members that passed away, Hall said she would get as many boosters as the CDC recommends even with the CDC’S new research out.
“For me it’s just a personal responsibility to your fellow, to the people you love and even the people you don’t know,” she said.
Doctor Jaime Fergie, the director of infectious diseases at Driscoll Children’s Hospital, said boosters can help against the different variants. He said the immunocompromised might even need to get a fourth dose of the vaccine if their doctors recommend it.
“The vaccines still protect most of the people against severe disease, against having to go to the hospital, intensive care, and death,” Dr. Fergie said.
He said the vaccines have not been as effective against the delta variant and the omicron variant, which has at least 50 mutations. He said the original COVID-19 vaccine was over 90% effective against the virus, but said with the different mutations, those percentages have gone down.
“Some of the mutations are located in the most critical part of the virus. This we call the spike protein and the receptor binding domain is precisely the area against which the vaccines work,” he said.
Doctor Eric Baggerman, the C.E.O. of Amistad Community Health Center, said the vaccine was 70% effective against infection with the delta variant and about 30% effective against the omicron variant.
A big question on everybody’s mind is: why even get vaccinated if people are just going to get COVID-19 anyways?
“It’s not a barrier that prevents the virus from entering into your body. It’s a vaccine that helps equip your body fight the infection when it gets there,” Dr. Baggerman said.
