America hits the vaccine wall: Thousands of appointments go unfilled

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The U.S. supply of COVID-19 vaccines is beginning to rapidly outpace demand, as appointments remain unfilled across the country and states say they are running out of people willing to get the shots.

As of Friday, 49 percent of U.S. adults had received at least one vaccine dose, and various polls suggest that only about 60 percent are interested in getting a vaccine right away.

Health officials have suggested that the country needs to achieve a vaccination rate of 70 to 90 percent to achieve coronavirus herd immunity, the point at which a virus no longer circulates freely because it cannot find susceptible hosts.

The decision this week to suspend administering the Johnson & Johnson shot over rare blood clots may only deepen suspicious about vaccines — but public health experts say the pause is evidence that safety concerns are being rigorously monitored.

Javier Morena receives his first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on Friday in Staten Island. Vaccine hesitancy is becoming an increasing concern in the rollout

On Friday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf issued a desperate plea for residents to get vaccinated, as clinics in the state reported hundreds, if not thousands, of available appointments that were not being filled each day.

‘The appointment availability does give us cause for concern because it’s indicative of hesitancy, which really is the challenge to come,’ said Alison Beam, the state’s acting health secretary, who joined Wolf at a news conference.

She said the fact that nearly half of Pennsylvania’s nursing home workers have declined the vaccine is further evidence of ‘how far we have to go and how much of a challenge overcoming this vaccine hesitancy will be in the near future.’

A recent survey from KFF found that just 61 percent of adults say they have either received the vaccine or want to as soon as possible.

Another 17 percent want to ‘wait and see’ while 13 percent said they would ‘definitely not’ get vaccinated. Seven percent said they would only get the shot if required.

The poll shows, as others have, a strange political divide over vaccines, with 29 percent of Republicans said they would ‘definitely not’ get vaccinated, compared to just 5 percent of Democrats.

Less than half of Republicans (46 percent) say they want a vaccine as soon as possible, compared to 79 percent…

 

Read the full story here: Source: America hits the vaccine wall: Thousands of appointments go unfilled | Daily Mail Online


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