On September 7, 2023 the first lady tested positive for Covid-19, cases have been taking a steady uptick since July. Since the number of cases are rising that also means the number of hospitalizations and deaths are increasing, even with this increase numbers remain low. In the week ending Aug 26, 2023 hospital admissions have risen 16% compared to the week before it, but the 17,400 new admissions were substantially less than the last few years, about 20% of the number of cases in 2021.  

The Biden Administration stated that Americans should now expect to get the Covid-19 vaccine like the flu shot, annually instead of more frequently like the boosters entailed. People have different theories for why this is. Michael Barbaro, host of The Daily , stated “I have to imagine that a big reason why the CDC is pushing this is not just because the previous regime was confusing, but because wasn’t the previous system wasn’t really getting people to take a vaccine.” This would seem a great reason to make the vaccine annual, it would be less confusing and tedious, and more people might get it because according to Apoorva Mandavilli (a science and global health reporter for The New York Times) only 12% of the predicted doses were given in the first half of the year, although people who really did need it like older adults did go out and get one.

As this virus continues to mutate and create new variants they will be studied, and hopefully with this new vaccine schedule people will take higher interest in getting their own.