The bad news about COVID-19 is that it seems to never let up, as the death count in the U.S. pushes toward 500,000 and the number of infections reaches 25 million.
Behind those awful numbers, though, there are signs of significant progress.
By most reports, the vaccine rollout has been clumsy, with many states either discarding doses they can’t distribute or running out of supplies. More than half of essential workers and people 65 and older who have not yet been vaccinated say they don’t know how to arrange for a shot. Some are taking desperate measures to get their loved ones inoculated.
Despite these failures, there’s reason for optimism: The vaccine rollout is in fact improving quickly. The U.S. is distributing more than 1 million shots a day, and rising. Vaccinations per 100 people are among the highest in the world. And for the most part, hospital systems and other providers are managing all this without delaying essential second shots.
What’s more, although manufacturing capacity likely won’t expand before April, companies are on pace to deliver 200 million doses by then. That’s enough for President Joe Biden to double his goal of delivering 100 million shots in his first 100 days. And it’s possible that millions more doses of a third vaccine will be added by spring.
Biden’s team is taking many additional steps that should improve this rollout.
He plans to ask Congress for $20 billion to offer shots at more stadiums and pharmacies, provide mobile vaccine operations and hire more health care workers to speed the process. He aims to buy hundreds of millions more doses as they become available to ensure not only that everyone gets vaccinated this time, but that more shots are available if boosters turn out to be needed down the road. He also intends to order syringes capable of drawing extra doses from vaccine vials and to encourage suppliers to shrink minimum shipment sizes so rural hospitals aren’t left to discard surplus doses.
The president’s next priority should be addressing the national anxiety about vaccines.
On one hand, many Americans are worried about when they’ll be able get their shots. They need to be given a clearer idea of when they’ll be eligible and better guidance about how to make appointments. Biden’s team must get state health officials the information and support they need to get these messages out.
On the other hand, an alarmingly large number of people say they don’t want to be vaccinated or want to wait to make sure the shots are safe. Biden’s team needs to convince these Americans of the vaccines’ safety and effectiveness, and communicate the benefits they can expect from personal protection and (eventually) from herd immunity. In particular, officials need to reach out to Black Americans, rural residents and essential workers, who are especially likely to be wary of vaccines.
Another bit of better-than-expected luck for Biden’s administration is that the seven-day average of new COVID infections in the U.S., though still terribly high, has decreased since Jan. 11. Perhaps Biden’s most essential job is to make sure vaccination proceeds fast enough to outrun the next wave.
— Bloomberg Opinion