The spread of COVID-19 in America has slowed recently. Nevertheless, there are 28,260,716 confirmed cases in the U.S., which is about 25% of the world’s total. And, there have been 500,833 fatal cases–20% of the world’s total. Some scientists believe case counts are much higher, perhaps by 2x, because of undiagnosed people, some of whom have had no symptoms. Vaccination remains the best hope of arresting the spread of the disease. And, the rate of vaccination is very uneven from state to state.
Vaccination may not be a cure-all. New variants of the disease have reached the U.S. in the last several weeks. Some of these could spread faster or be more deadly than the version of the disease that has caused the most American infections over the last year. And, in December, it was assumed that the vaccine would be widely available through the early months of 2021 as a means of taking America back to “normal” by midyear. As it turned out, some states ran out of vaccines almost completely. However, recently President Joe Biden said the federal government had made arrangements to get 200 million new doses by the end of July.
Right now, 13% of American adults have been given at least one dose of vaccine. Another 5.1% have been given two shots. A total of 78,152,495 doses have been delivered, and 59,585,043 shots have been given, which means 76% of the doses have been used.
Utah is the state that has done the most poorly in vaccinating its population. Only 11% of adults have been given at least one shot. Only 4.2% have been given two doses. This contrasts to the state with the best record–Alaska at 20%.
Utah has excelled in one area. The state has received 657,150 and given 584,648–a rate of 89% doses used.
Utah appears to have two hurdles when it comes to vaccination rates. One is delivery efficiency. According to TV station KUTV: “The Utah County Health Department said they’re seeing a slowdown in those seventy plus signing up for COVID-19 vaccine appointments.” The other is that the state may not force residents to get vaccinated. According to KJZZ: “A committee in the Utah House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit the government from requiring people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Based on what appear to be problems with vaccine rollout, Utah may stay at the bottom of the list of states vaccinating their populations for some time.
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