MNN Heath Report for 12/10/21: 

 

This week on the Minnesota Native News Health Report…

Governor Walz is urging Minnesotans to get booster shots… ahead of the holidays. 

 

And… The FDA has now approved booster shots for 16- and 17-year-olds.

 

But first, researchers are racing to understand the threat of the Omicron variant. 

 

I’m Marie Rock. 

 

 

 

The Omicron variant is FOUR times more transmissible that’s according to an early study of latest COVID variant. 

 

Still… the C-D-C says cases of omicron that have shown up in the United States have only caused mild disease in the 40 patients identified so far. 

 

Researchers are racing to understand the threat of the Omicron variant… and how it will impact people who have already been vaccinated. 

 

Just for some perspective… The first COVID case was diagnosed TWO years ago in December of 2019 in Wuhan China. 

Since then, the disease has claimed the lives of more than 5-point-2 million people world-wide.

 

Here in Minnesota…. Health officials are expressing concern about the number of people filling up I-C-U beds in our state. 

 

This prompted Governor Walz to urge people to get booster shots and vaccinations… 

 

Walz said: Don’t take up a hospital bed because you are unvaccinated.  Governor Walz made that remark at a vaccination event at Century College, where more than 500 first doses and booster shots were given. 

 

 Health officials say that many hospitals around the state have more critically ill patients… than they have intensive care beds available at this time. 

 

That’s a problem when patients need hospitalization for problems other than COVID.

 

Unvaccinated Minnesotans make up the majority of COVID-related hospitalizations.

 

That’s why Governor Walz is saying: get your shots.

 

Some people have reportedly had trouble getting an appointment for their booster shot, but Walz encourages people to keep trying… at their healthcare clinic or through your local pharmacy. 

 
 

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Federal regulators approved booster shots for 16- and 17-year-olds… the emergency approval of the Pfizer COVID booster vaccination comes less than a month after health officials declared that everyone 18 and up is eligible to receive a booster shot six months after receiving the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines…. Or two months after getting the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

 For more information about when and where to get your booster shot go online to 

Vaccine connector DOT MN DOT gov

 
 For the Minnesota Native News Health Report - I’m Marie Rock.