Two months after the first COVID-19 shots were fired, the race to vaccinate older Americans is drawing to a close, with more than a third of people aged 65 and older receiving their first dose in states that have data provided.
The finding comes from an Associated Press analysis of information from 27 states where data is available. The countries are responsible for just over half of all initial doses administered nationwide.
“This is very good news. It’s a sign that we’re doing it right, ‘said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. Vaccination vaccines are declining rapidly as older Americans talk to their vaccinated friends, he said. “They look at people they know, get the vaccine and see that it’s safe.”
The effort is uneven, with many other states still lagging behind in the vaccinations of the higher-risk population.
Mokdad added: “We can do better. I can not wait for the day when everyone who wants the vaccine can get the vaccine. The system we put in place works. We need to keep pushing for more vaccine. ”
The amount of vaccines given to people 65 and older varies. This is about three-quarters of all first doses in Florida and more than two-thirds in North Carolina.
In Indiana, Alaska, and Western Virginia, nearly half of the population 65 years and older received the first dose. In North Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, Florida and Utah, about a third of the population received the first dose.
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Nebraska and Maryland, are at the bottom, with 20% or less of the 65-and-older population. The Government of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, and a dual group of state lawmakers said Wednesday that they will set up a vaccination task force that will study ways to administer COVID-19 shots faster.
As of Wednesday, the federal government has distributed 46.4 million doses of vaccine among states and other jurisdictions, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. To date, nearly 34 million people, or 10% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Nearly 10.5 million people, or 3% of the population, received both doses.
President Joe Biden, who is working to ease supply-side bottlenecks, announced Thursday that by the end of the summer, the U.S. will have enough stock of the two-dose vaccine to vaccinate 300 million Americans. He said the US had contractual obligations from Moderna and Pfizer to deliver the 600 million doses by the end of July – more than a month earlier than initially expected.
Older Americans bore the brunt of the deaths and hospitalizations due to the virus, which claimed more than 473,000 lives. in the US About 80% of people who died from COVID were adults 65 years and older.
There is not yet enough data to analyze whether vaccination reduces infections and deaths in that age group, Mokdad said. But his research center, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, plans to look into it in the coming weeks.
Experts recommend that people continue to wear masks and practice social distance even after receiving COVID-19 shots. Although recipients are expected to receive some protection within a few weeks after the first shot, full protection can only take place a few weeks after the second shot. It is unclear whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus.
Yet the vaccines have already had a significant impact on the lives of older Americans.
Stephanie LaBumbard, 80, spent most of last year alone and divorced at home in Cadillac, Michigan. Now she is feeling an increase in positivity after getting her second dose of vaccination.
“I’m not home free yet, but I feel in a much better condition,” LaBumbard said. She has not yet changed her cautious behavior, but plans to do so and can no longer be happy about it. Being able to go out with friends again is an absolute miracle. ‘
“It’s so wonderful to realize that we can be normal again or something like that.”
She is especially pleased to be able to worship in person at her church, where she will return on Sunday after participating for months via Zoom. She had to give up volunteering in a hospital and get coffee and dinner from friends, but she especially missed her family.
‘I was alone at Thanksgiving. I was just one of my boys for Christmas. “Especially when you get to my age … I feel young, but you do not know, it could be my last Christmas,” she said, adding that she was pleased with Michigan’s distribution of vaccines. ‘It seems to me that they have done a fantastic job up here. They organized everything so well. ”
This is another story in rural Warren County, North Carolina, where Leticia Bonilla is frustrated by the inability to make a vaccine appointment and prefers not to wait in line at a mass clinic in another state.
The 66-year-old retired teacher said the nurse at her doctor’s office offered to help her get on a waiting list, but she refused because it felt too insecure.
“I said, ‘Well, how long is the list?’ “She said, ‘I do not know. We do not have any vaccines yet. “And I said, ‘Well, why would I put my name there?’ … And I just captured, ‘Bonilla said.
North Carolina’s vaccine distribution process runs through a decentralized system that enables provincial health departments and vaccine providers to develop their own processes for making vaccine appointments.
Lynn Bender and her husband, Mark Bender, both 70, received their second dose of vaccine two weeks ago. The couple are from Monroe Township, New Jersey, but they live about ten weeks a year in a retirement community in Coconut Creek, Florida, which used Broward County for a test rollout. They had to be a part of it, and they are happy to be surrounded by people who have also been vaccinated.
“It makes it very nice that you at least have someone to be safe with when you feel safe,” Lynn Bender said. “We are now at the point where we can hang out with someone, play cards or play mahjong.”
They especially missed the arts and crafts events and the support of artists and artisans across the country, something they look forward to when they can continue to watch.
“We really haven’t changed much, but everyone is still careful,” she said. “But as one of my friends says, it’s feeling better when you know you’re not going to die.”
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Associated Press authors Kelli Kennedy in Miami and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.