Amid a “triple-demic” of respiratory illness, vaccination rates for COVID-19 and influenza are concerningly low. Instead of misplaced attention to the per-unit commercial list price of vaccines, we should be focused on vaccinating as many people as possible to reduce the spread of respiratory illness that can be especially life-threatening for the youngest and oldest Americans and the immunocompromised.
Fixation and hype over the cost of COVID-19 vaccines is not new. It began just as soon as we realized that a vaccine would be needed to bring an end to the pandemic and before vaccines were out of the first phase of clinical trials.
