The CDC has done an analysis of the data up to April 20th. At that point, 87 million US residents had been fully vaccinated. Among those, only 331 people have needed to be hospitalized due to COVID. That's .00038 percent of the total vaccinated population. There were only 77 deaths due to COVID-19 in this population.
This really is a society-wide success. It took years of government funding of basic science for us to understand how to structure an RNA to work well, and to figure out the chemistry needed to insert it into a cell. A couple of startups (one in Germany) pioneered the use of the technology in vaccines, and major pharmaceutical companies have been helping with the manufacturing and distribution. And, after a shaky start, the government's been central to making sure the shots get into the arms of as many people as possible.
The full measure of success will be getting the vaccines out globally. As long as the virus is circulating in populations, there will be a risk of it evolving into a threatening form that evades vaccines. Having it contained in the US may only be a temporary success when it's still spreading widely in Brazil and India - as well as a vaccine-hesitant population here.
This really is a society-wide success. It took years of government funding of basic science for us to understand how to structure an RNA to work well, and to figure out the chemistry needed to insert it into a cell. A couple of startups (one in Germany) pioneered the use of the technology in vaccines, and major pharmaceutical companies have been helping with the manufacturing and distribution. And, after a shaky start, the government's been central to making sure the shots get into the arms of as many people as possible.
The full measure of success will be getting the vaccines out globally. As long as the virus is circulating in populations, there will be a risk of it evolving into a threatening form that evades vaccines. Having it contained in the US may only be a temporary success when it's still spreading widely in Brazil and India - as well as a vaccine-hesitant population here.
Comment