Analysis | America is about to be passed in vaccinations by France, to our eternal shame - The Washington Post

Government officials have tried just about everything to get Americans to be vaccinated against the coronavirus: lotteries, cash, weed, pop stars.

Yet the country not only failed to hit President Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose by July 4 — denying us free beer — but we still haven’t hit that mark. As of writing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 68 percent of American adults have received one dose and 59 percent have been fully vaccinated. The implications are grim, as the number of cases nationally has begun rapidly climbing back up, doubling in the past week.

So allow us to introduce another incentive: raw patriotism.

The Olympics are beginning in a bit over a week, and the United States is sending its second-biggest team in history. The aim, as always, is to cover medal platforms with red-white-and-blue-bedecked Americans, yielding numerous photos of people chomping down on golden disks. Yet in the international let’s-not-die-from-the-coronavirus competition, we’ve dropped out of medal contention.

Data from Our World in Data shows that until late April, the United States was keeping pace with the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world: Israel and the United Kingdom. But then U.S. vaccination rates started to slow, and other countries began encroaching on our public-health bronze.

First, Canada passed us. Canada! The moose guys. Our hat. Then Italy, Europe’s Florida. Then Germany, Europe’s Canada. Now we’re stuck in sixth.

(The paltry rate of inoculations in Africa speaks for itself, to the world’s collective embarrassment.)

Even worse than being passed by the Germans, we’re in significant danger of soon being passed by France, a longtime American ally that we nonetheless all pretend to hate because they think they’re fancy. Imagine if I was sitting here telling you that France was about to surpass the United States in the 100-meter dash or, like, a hot-dog-eating contest. Would you be indifferent about that? You would not.

The problem is that younger Americans are not getting vaccinated at the same rate as older Americans. It’s obvious why: The virus is much riskier for older people than younger ones. But among adults under 25, only about half have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. Among those younger, the rates are even worse.

You will notice that vaccination totals have flattened across the age spectrum. When the government first recommended pausing administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April, it appeared to tap the brakes on vaccinations generally. But it may also be the case that in younger age groups, fewer people felt an urgent need to get the vaccine even as they were increasingly able to. Once they did so, that left the medical community trying to convince the more skeptical.

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the flattening of vaccine administration also correlates with politics. States that voted for Joe Biden last year saw much less of a drop-off after April.)

So there’s France, riding its baguette-laden scooter closer into our rearview mirror. Worse, French President Emmanuel Macron announced this week that some businesses, including restaurants, will soon begin requiring vaccinations before people can come in and drink wine and eat cheese or whatever. A million people signed up for vaccine appointments in less than a day.

There’s a serious side to this, of course. That only about 9 in 10 people over the age of 65 are vaccinated means that 10 percent of the population that’s most at risk is not protected against infection. By more broadly vaccinating younger people, we reduce the likelihood that the virus will spread broadly, increasing protection for those older people. It’s not just about beating France. It’s also about, you know, trying to have fewer people die.

But it is also about beating France.

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July 16, 2021 at 04:33AM
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Analysis | America is about to be passed in vaccinations by France, to our eternal shame - The Washington Post
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