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About 1 in 12 Americans haven t gotten their second scheduled dose of COVID-19 vaccine on time, and while that worries epidemiologists, the follow-through is far better than other adult two-dose vaccines.
According to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 92% of people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine made it back for their second shot.
Experts noted such completion numbers for the two-dose regime of the most widely used vaccines against the coronavirus are a cause for celebration. With the biggest mass vaccination program in history, 92% of people coming back for their second shot is a huge victory, said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
Skipping second COVID vaccine shot: some have but 92% got both doses usatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For almost a year, Americans have been looking forward to herd immunity, when enough people are protected through vaccination or past infection to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Once there, public officials have said, masks won’t be necessary and hugging and handshakes – not to mention gyms, bars and indoor dining – can return.
But even as more than half of adult Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine and many others are protected by recent infections, health experts are moving away from the idea of reaching some magic number.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor, doesn’t want to talk about herd immunity anymore.
USA Today
Apr 20, 2021 9:40 PM ET
What Fauci doesn t explicitly state, but others do, is that with about a quarter of Americans saying theymight notwant to be immunized, herd immunity is simply not an attainable goal.
“It s theoretically possible but we as a society have rejected that, said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic s Vaccine Research Group. “There is no eradication at this point, it’s off the table. The only thing we can talk about is control.”.
The split has become political. About 79% of self-identified Democrats say they have been vaccinated or intend to do so soon, compared with 46% of Republicans. About 3 in 10 Republicans say they will definitely not get vaccinated, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 9.4 % LOWER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago and U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 26.9 %
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