Here’s the latest news from the global pandemic.
The American threat
With more than half of all Americans at least partially vaccinated and Covid cases on the decline, it’s starting to feel a lot like the pandemic may finally be winding down, at least in the U.S.
But such sweeping numbers tell only part of the story. As much of the country emerges from masking and social distancing, undervaccinated pockets of America are threatening to bring the virus roaring back.
In at least 482 counties, less than 25% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg News. Those numbers are important because viruses don’t spread at a national or statewide level, but among friends, family and neighbors.
With more contagious versions of the virus like the delta variant taking hold, pockets of undervaccination are creating opportunities for Covid to spread further and mutate.
Unvaccinated America
In 482 counties, less than 25% of the population is fully vaccinated
Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Texas Department of State Health Services
Note: Bloomberg has only included counties for states where more than 80% of vaccine records have residency information; data are as of June 9.
We’ve seen this before. In 2000, the World Health Organization declared that measles had been eliminated from the U.S. Yet in 2014, more than 600 cases appeared. Why? It turned out that while national measles vaccination rates hadn’t changed significantly in well over a decade, inoculation rates in communities affected by the outbreaks had fallen below the national average — and the threshold needed to keep measles from spreading.
By 2019, the U.S. was facing the biggest measles outbreak in recent years, with more than 1,200 cases.
Bloomberg’s analysis revealed some patterns among the pockets of holdouts. Many of the counties are more rural and less economically advantaged than the rest of the U.S. A majority of their voters in the last presidential election chose Donald Trump, who belittled his own scientists leading the fight against Covid. But vaccine hesitation is nuanced and personal, so one demographic detail is unlikely to explain the myriad reasons someone might be skeptical about the vaccine.
But any way you slice it, as long as so many pockets of hesitation exist, it’s unlikely Covid will be going anywhere.
“I didn't think we should be ignoring this problem before this pandemic began,” says Maimuna Majumder, a health informatics researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. “I think it’s even more important now.” —Kristen V. Brown
Track the vaccine
Some two months ago the rate was north of 3.3 million a day, but the trend has decidedly slowed. At the current pace it will take another five months to reach 75% of the population. Get the latest data here.
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June 23, 2021 at 06:30PM
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Unvaccinated Pockets Threaten US Recovery - Bloomberg
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