Approximately 19.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the US out of the nearly 40 million distributed as the new Biden administration increases vaccination efforts.
Dr. Steven McDonald, a physician in emergency medicine in New York, described the current situation as a battle between the vaccination of the vaccine and the coronavirus that was still spreading among the population.
“It’s hard to say which of these forces is going to win faster,” McDonald said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). ‘I would say that the virus is going on from now on. The rollout of vaccines is so far behind where we need it to be. ”
The country recently surpassed 400,000 COVID deaths earlier this week, and public health officials expect a further increase in cases as a newer, most contagious coronavirus strain becomes dominant in the US.
For the country to achieve herd immunity, which in turn can lead to normal, between 80-90% of the public must be vaccinated. About 5% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated so far.
The Biden government aims to vaccinate 1 million Americans a day during the first 100 days of Biden’s presidency. President Biden is reportedly planning to appeal to the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine production.
“The tightening of vaccine supply chains is going to be key in the fight against this,” McDonald said.
‘It’s hard to say something is under control’
The incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dr. Rochelle Walensky, warned that there was a “dark week ahead” for the country, and predicted that the US would exceed the 500,000 death toll by mid-February. McDonald contradicts a similar sentiment.
“As long as the numbers in the United States remain 100,000, and 200,000 people are affected every day, it’s hard to say anything is under control,” McDonald said. “While things are moving in the right direction, the range of numbers suggests that they are far beyond our control.”
He added: “I really think a vaccine could be the only thing that can curb it because we have social measures that have not worked so far.”
The spread of the coronavirus did not discriminate on the basis of geographic location – California faces an overwhelming number of cases, as do the Dakotas and parts of the northeast. Several of the states experiencing increases have mask mandates and other restrictions in place, but this has not been as effective in recent months as more people gather indoors due to cooler weather.
“What stops the spread and what individuals can do is the overwhelming source of spread called ‘lounge spread,'” McDonald said. ‘This is when you have people about whom you suspect are safe but exposed, infected, even if they may not show signs of symptoms. This is how it really spreads. ”
Public health experts especially attribute the fact that the holidays are largely attributed to indoor events. If the trend continues, McDonald said, the U.S. will be forced to continue restrictions throughout the year until the vaccination of the vaccine is complete.
“Until we can somehow get it right, which means we have to regulate individual behavior, we are not going to get the portability of this right,” McDonald said, adding: “I do not have a crystal ball, but as rates. continue as it is, I think [we’ll be] remain in isolation for the rest of the year and under these restrictions on public health. That said, hopefully we will learn from our mistakes and we will have a much more effective implementation in the spring. ”
Adriana is a reporter and editor covering Yahoo Finance’s politics and healthcare policies. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.
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