The biggest vaccination campaign in history is underway. More than 10.1 billion doses have been administered across 184 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 32.7 million doses a day.
In the U.S., 539 million doses have been given so far. An average 525,247 doses per day were administered over the last week.
In total, 129 doses have been given for every 100 people around the world—but the distribution has been lopsided. Countries and regions with the highest incomes are getting vaccinated more than 10 times faster than those with the lowest.
While the best vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death, it takes a coordinated campaign to stop a pandemic. Infectious-disease experts have said that vaccinating 70% to 85% of the U.S. population would enable a return to normalcy, but boosters may be required to keep the disease in check.
On a global scale, that’s a daunting level of vaccination. At the current pace of 7.62 million people getting their first shots each day, the goal of halting the pandemic remains elusive. Manufacturing capacity, however, is increasing, thanks to new vaccines and added capacity from existing drugmakers.
Israel was first to show that vaccines were bending the curve of Covid infections. The country led the world in early vaccinations, and by February more than 84% of people ages 70 and older had received two doses. Covid cases declined rapidly, and a similar pattern of vaccination and recovery repeated across dozens of other countries.
This progress is under threat. New strains, led by the highly transmissible delta and omicron variants, caused renewed outbreaks. Israel saw another surge of cases, which it brought under control by offering boosters to all vaccinated people. Worldwide, unvaccinated people are more at risk than ever, leading U.S. health officials to dub it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Even among the vaccinated new variants may lead to mild cases, and those who get sick are able to spread the disease to others, according to the latest data. The vaccines remain effective at reducing hospitalizations and deaths.
Since the start of the global vaccination campaign, countries have experienced unequal access to vaccines and varying degrees of efficiency in getting shots into people’s arms. Before March, few African nations had received a single shipment of shots. By contrast, 161 doses have been administered for every 100 people in the U.S.
Delivering billions of vaccines to stop the spread of Covid-19 worldwide is one of the greatest logistical challenges ever undertaken.
More than half of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, and supply of shots is plentiful. The vaccination campaign, however, has slowed. Once the envy of the world for its swift rollout, the U.S. has since been overtaken by dozens of countries. There are still wide gaps between the most and least vaccinated counties in the U.S., leaving many communities vulnerable to continued outbreaks.
Distribution in the U.S. early on was directed by the federal government, and vaccines are now easily accessible almost everywhere. Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, as well as Moderna’s shot both require two doses taken several weeks apart. J&J’s inoculation requires just a single dose. As protection from the first round of vaccines has diminished, the U.S. government has encouraged people to get booster shots.
So far, 250 million Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine—74.6% of the population. At least 212 million people have completed a vaccination regimen. The U.S. is sending some of its excess supply to other hard-hit regions of the world.
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It takes about two weeks after a final vaccine dose for immunity to fully develop. While the CDC has offered guidance on mask-wearing after vaccination, many local governments and businesses have set their own rules.
Unvaccinated people, including children, should still wear masks indoors, according to the CDC’s latest guidance.
U.S. health officials are now focused on how to vaccinate people who have been reluctant to get a shot. While many parts of the country have high levels of vaccination, the number of new people getting shots has slowed to a trickle in some places with lower rates.
After focusing first on hospitals and other institutional health-care settings, states expanded the number of places that offer the shots. Mass vaccination centers were created from sport stadiums, theme parks, convention halls and race tracks. Now the campaign has moved to more traditional health-care settings: pharmacies, doctors’ offices and clinics.