As America starts to reopen after the covid-19 pandemic; the high risk of getting infected by the virus is far from being over according to the health experts. Populous states like California and New York have started to open up in full capacity after the infection rates lower down and the vaccination process accelerates.
Yet it is alarming to witness that the overall vaccination rates have dropped down in the US compared to previous months as medical officials raise the concern over the uneven distribution of vaccines across the country.
Andy Slavitt, a former senior advisor for the Biden administration’s covid-19 response stated that “I’m very unconcerned for the people who have been vaccinated, and I’m more concerned for people who have not been vaccinated and the communities that are largely unvaccinated.”
Slavitt is the same person who had described the B.1.617.2 or Delta variant as “Covid on steroids”. According to CDC, the delta variant which is a new form of covid-19 that emerged in India has increased almost 10% of the coronavirus cases in the United States.
The said strain has been listed by CDC as a “variant of concern”, which means that it has the potential to be more transmittable as compared to its parent variant and It can cause more severe infection.
Recent studies conducted over the effectiveness of the various vaccines on new emerging variants such as delta showed that pre-emptive vaccination and immunization is the best solution to defend these newer variants of coronavirus.
The communities which are still indecisive regarding getting themselves vaccinated are the ones that are at high risk as the new variants which are more transmittable will spread twice as fast in these unvaccinated communities.
According to data compiled by John Hopkins University, America surpassed 600,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic which means that approximately 1 in 550 Americans died from the deadly covid-19.
Even though the rate of deaths and infection have declined dramatically since the fall of 2020, the virus is still at large for the unvaccinated communities. This decline in the number of infections and deaths is credited to the health experts who ensured that millions of Americans get themselves vaccinated.
The health officials continue to generate newer ways to convince Americans to get themselves vaccinated. The US Department of Health and Human Services plans to enlist a student ambassador of 16 or older to promote the covid-19 vaccinations. State officials and governors of the states where the vaccination turnout is low have started to give financial incentives to people to increase the vaccination rollout by providing lotteries etc.
Vaccination is one of the ways to combat the covid-19 infection in the longer run, the country needs to be 70% vaccinated to attain herd immunity to curtail novel coronavirus.
