The U.S. has had many milestones in our few hundred years of history. Achieving independence was a milestone. Abolition of slavery was a milestone as was ending legally-mandated and enforced segregation.
Now, the U.S. has reached another goal that some people have set for us, and some would call it a major milestone, too. Still, others have concerns about this particular milestone.
So, what are we talking about? Zachary Stieber writes,
The United States this week hit a major milestone in efforts to administer COVID-19 vaccines to the population.
Approximately 50 percent of adults 18 or older as of May 26 have been fully vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19, according to federal data.
“This is a major milestone in our country’s vaccination efforts,” acting COVID-19 administrator Andy Slavitt told a virtual briefing.
Just 1 percent of Americans were fully vaccinated when President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20.
U.S. regulators granted emergency use authorization to two COVID-19 vaccines the month prior. Both vaccines require two doses. Fully vaccinated refers to people who get both doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab, which was authorized in March.
Half of U.S. states and Washington D.C. have fully vaccinated 50 percent or more of their adult population, with 9 states seeing 70 percent of more adult residents being fully vaccinated.
Stieber continues:
Another nearly 11 percent of U.S. adults have gotten at least one vaccine dose, putting them within several weeks of being fully vaccinated.
One of the most vulnerable populations, those 65 years old or older, are a big portion of the fully vaccinated. Almost three-quarters of that population is fully vaccinated, according to federal data.
For many people, these milestones are good news because it helps to reduce the fear of more people dying from COVID-19. Still others are hoping that promises to ease restrictions in states that locked down harder during the COVID-19 crisis will actually come to pass so that they can regain some sense of normalcy in their lives.
But other people continue to have concerns about the safety of the vaccines and the potential long-term affects which are not yet known.
So, should you be celebrating the vaccination milestone? That completely depends on your concerns about COVID-19, lockdowns, and vaccine side effects. We’ll have to see what happens in all of those areas.
