More Americans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 than they tested positive for the virus, an early but hopeful step in the race to end the pandemic.
On Monday afternoon, 26.5 million Americans had received one or both doses of current vaccines, according to data collected by Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Since the first patient in the United States tested positive outside Seattle a year ago, 26.2 million people in the country have tested positive for the disease and 441,000 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US takes photos at a faster daily rate than any country in the world, providing about 1.35 million doses per day, according to data collected by Bloomberg. While the launch stalled in its early days, in the six weeks since the first gunshots, nearly 7.8% of Americans have received one or more doses, and 1.8% are fully vaccinated.
“It is noteworthy that today, for the first time, the data said that more people were vaccinated than were reported as newly diagnosed cases,” said Paula Cannon, a professor of microbiology at Keck University School of Medicine. Southern California. “That’s worth celebrating. I’m all for this victory.”
Only a few other countries have passed this stage: Israel, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates have defeated the United States in the face of more vaccinations than cases a few days or weeks ago.
After an increase in the holiday in US cases, officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are turning to the top, although this is likely due to behavioral changes and still has no widespread impact on the vaccine. New COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and emergency department visits are beginning to decline, said Jay Butler, the agency’s deputy director of the infectious diseases agency.
“While these trends are encouraging, I want to emphasize that the national figures are still high and are as high as they have been at any time of the pandemic so far,” he said in a briefing on Friday. hosted by the Society of Infectious Diseases of America. “If this pandemic were a stock, we might want to sell.”
It is still possible for the virus to catch a cold, especially if variants occur in South Africa and elsewhere. Studies suggest that vaccines, especially the latest photos from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc., are less potent against that strain and at least another.
The goal is to eventually reach the herd’s immunity, when so many Americans are protected by a vaccine or a natural infection, the virus struggles to spread and eventually disappear. Public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top physician, estimate that 70% to 85% of the 330 million Americans need to be exposed to the virus or vaccine pathogen to reach this level.
While past infection can create immunity, it is unclear how long it will last. And it has a cost – not just deaths, but hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and some that report persistent illness and a number of bewildering symptoms, including fatigue, depression and respiratory problems.
“There is a price to pay for suffering and costs for the health system,” said Alessandro Sette, a professor at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology. “It’s prolonged and severe.”
In the meantime, there have been no deaths related to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. The US Voluntary Adverse Event Monitoring System includes reports of approximately 290 deaths from a January 22 coronavirus vaccine. immunizations.
The questions persist. It is not yet clear exactly how many people have been vaccinated or infected and may never be. Many more people have had the virus than have tested positive, especially those with mild or asymptomatic cases.
Vaccinations reported are also lower than the number actually administered because people are more focused on injecting them into their arms than recording data into tracking systems, Cannon said. Two shots are needed for full immunity, which only 5.82 million Americans received.
It is still early in the immunization effort, which has been plagued by a lack of coordination, confusion over who should have access and a supply shortage, which has reduced the number of people who could get shot in the first weeks of launch.
It’s also important to make sure the right people are immunized to get the most benefits, said Bill Moss, executive director of Johns Hopkins University’s International Vaccine Access Center.
“There are a lot of people who get vaccinated and who are not in high-risk categories,” he said. “If that’s the case, it will take longer to see a reduction in serious illness and death. Everyone needs a vaccine at some point, but I’m worried about the inequities in the way the system has gone.”
Emerging variants have created a new urgency to increase the pace of vaccinations, said Daniela Weiskopf, an assistant research professor at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology. Every time the virus reproduces, there is a chance that a variant will appear.
“The sooner we stop this, the more likely we are to see more options,” she said.
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