Vaccine Rollouts and The Future of The Pandemic

Thanks to the widespread roll-out of vaccines, things are looking up in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic in many parts of the world. America in particular has been doing especially well with vaccine distribution and virus containment in the past few months with newly instated President Joe Biden. With over 110 million citizens vaccinated in the US, people are hoping to have their lives return to normalcy soon. Though some countries are still struggling due to lack of access to vaccinations and other factors, overall, COVID seems to be well on its way to being more or less defeated. 

Experts have estimated that between 70 and 90 percent of the American population, adults and children alike, must acquire the vaccine or resistance to Covid-19 in order to obtain and sustain herd immunity. As of May 10, the Pfizer vaccine has now been approved for children as young as 12. According to the CDC’s vaccination projections, it is predicted that 54% of people will have received at least one dose of the vaccine by July and that 63% will be vaccinated by December. Additionally, as of May 2, 44.5% of America's total population had received at least one dose of the vaccine. This includes 69.8% of adults over 65 and 40.8% of adults over 18-years-old. 

With nearly 3.5 times more people vaccinated than the total number of reported cases of COVID in the US since the beginning, things are looking up. The mortality rate has steadily declined in the last 30 days, as of May 11, 578,945 Americans had lost their lives to COVID. The greatest number of vaccines delivered in one day in the U.S. was April 3, 2021 at an astounding 4.1 million doses reported. As the vaccine rollout becomes more precise and less chaotic, the goal of herd immunity and the defeat of this abhorrent virus in America inspires hope around the globe. 

Different types of vaccines are being administered around the globe. In America, the big three are Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. The Pfizer vaccine has been most widely administered with 131,657,484 doses. It is also the most widely used vaccine in parts of Brazil and Europe. The second most administered vaccine is Moderna, at 107,477,821 delivered doses. It is most used in North America as well as Europe. Moderna and Pfizer are both two dose vaccines, whereas Johnson & Johnson is only one dose. Johnson & Johnson is the least utilized vaccine with only 8,449,067 doses distributed. This is in part due to its distribution being temporarily paused because of rare side effects that it was linked to. Outside of America, it is most distributed in parts of Africa. 

Worldwide, over 1.19 billion doses have been administered. The countries with the highest percentage of citizens vaccinated include the U.S., the U.K., and Seychelles, as well as Chile, Israel, and U.A.E. The least include Mexico, Russia, India, and many African countries, though some of those places also have the least amount of reported daily cases. Outside of America, though, many countries are seeing improvements in their distribution of vaccines and their reported daily case counts. However, there are some inevitable struggles, particularly in countries like India. In India alone, experts expect to reach 50 million COVID cases by June and 403,000 total deaths.  While India is the world’s largest producer of vaccines by volume, because of a late rise in COVID cases, they’re struggling to distribute vaccines at a rate that combats this most recent outbreak. The only vaccines used in India are the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Bharat Biotech vaccine, also known as Covaxin, an indigenous Indian vaccine. While the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is reluctant to call for another ‘complete lockdown’ since the last one had such a negative impact on their economy, with hospitals full and cases and deaths spiking, India might be left with no other choice. 

While the Pandemic has changed the world as we know it and impacted everyone in it, people are working hard to figure out how to overcome the challenges it has caused.  With continuously updated studies and breakthroughs concerning the Coronavirus, it seems that we have a chance to beat this disease and return to normal life. The CDC’s guidelines have adapted to the changes and challenges brought by the virus, just as people adapted to this temporary new way of living back in March of 2020, which included quarantines, mask mandates, limited supplies, and so much more that many could never have fathomed. Though this past year has been difficult and draining, it seems that the control that COVID-19 has had over many of our lives is finally reaching an end. 

By Sydney Feld