Two months after the first injections of COVID-19 were administered, the race to vaccinate older Americans is gaining momentum, with more than a third of people 65 and older receiving their first dose in the states that provided data.
The discovery comes from an Associated Press analysis of information from 27 states where the data is available. These states account for just over half of all first doses administered across the country.
“This is very good news. This is a sign that we are doing it right,” said Ali Mokdad, professor of health metric sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. Hesitation about vaccination is dropping rapidly as older Americans talk to his friends who were vaccinated, he said. “They are watching people who know how to get the vaccine and seeing that it is safe.”
The effort is uneven, with many other states still lagging behind in vaccinating the high-risk population.
Mokdad added: “We can do better. I can’t wait for the day when everyone who wants the vaccine can get it. The system we have in place is working. We have to keep pushing for more vaccines ”.
The proportion of vaccines given to people aged 65 and over varies. It is about three quarters of all first-dose vaccines in Florida and more than two-thirds in North Carolina.
In Indiana, Alaska and West Virginia, almost half of the population aged 65 and over received the first dose. In North Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, Florida and Utah, about a third of this population received the first dose.
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Nebraska and Maryland are at the bottom, with 20% or less of the population aged 65 and over. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers said on Wednesday that they would create a vaccination task force that would think of ways to administer injections of COVID-19 more quickly.
On Wednesday, the federal government distributed 46.4 million doses of vaccines to states and other jurisdictions, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, almost 34 million people, or 10% of the US population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Almost 10.5 million people, or 3% of the population, received both doses.
President Joe Biden, who is acting to ease supply bottlenecks, announced on Thursday that the United States will have sufficient supplies of the two-dose vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans. He said the United States had secured contractual commitments from Moderna and Pfizer to deliver the 600 million doses by the end of July – more than a month ahead of schedule.
Older Americans suffered the most from the deaths and hospitalizations of the virus, which claimed more than 473,000 lives in the USA, about 80% of the people who died of COVID were adults aged 65 and over.
There is still insufficient data to analyze whether vaccination is reducing infections and deaths in this age group, said Mokdad. But its research center, the Institute of Metrics and Health Assessment, plans to examine this in the coming weeks.
Experts recommend that people continue to wear masks and practice social detachment even after receiving COVID-19 shots. Although recipients are expected to achieve some level of protection a few weeks after the first injection, full protection may not happen until a few weeks after the second injection. It is not clear whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus.
Even so, vaccines have already had a real impact on the lives of older Americans.
Stephanie LaBumbard, 80, spent most of last year alone and separated from her family at her home in Cadillac, Michigan. Now she is feeling a surge of positivity after receiving her second dose of vaccine.
“I’m not at home yet, but I feel in much better shape,” said LaBumbard. She hasn’t changed her cautious behavior yet, but she is making plans to do so and couldn’t be happier about it. Being able to go out with friends again feels like “an absolute miracle”.
“It is so wonderful to realize that we can go back to normal or something.”
She is especially happy to be able to worship in person at her church, where she will return on Sunday after participating via Zoom for months. She had to give up volunteering at a hospital and having coffee and dinner with friends, but she missed her family mostly.
“I was alone on Thanksgiving. I was with just one of my children for Christmas. Especially when you get to my age … I feel young, but you don’t know, this could be my last Christmas, ”she said, adding that she is satisfied with the distribution of the vaccine in Michigan. “It seems to me that they did a fantastic job here. They had everything very well organized. “
It’s a different story in rural North Carolina’s Warren County, where Letícia Bonilla was frustrated by her inability to make an appointment for a vaccination locally and prefers not to wait in line at a mass vaccination clinic in another county.
The 66-year-old retired teacher said the nurse at the doctor’s office offered to help her get on the waiting list, but she declined because it seemed too uncertain.
“I said, ‘Well, how long is the list?’ She said, ‘I don’t know. We don’t have vaccines yet. ‘And I said,’ Well, why would I put my name here? ‘ … And I just hung up, ”said Bonilla.
North Carolina’s vaccine distribution process is carried out through a decentralized system that allows county health departments and vaccine providers to develop their own vaccine labeling processes.
Lynn Bender and her husband, Mark Bender, both 70, received the second dose of the vaccine two weeks ago. The couple is from Monroe Township, New Jersey, but for about 10 weeks a year, they live in a retirement community in Coconut Creek, Florida, which Broward County used for an implantation test. They have to participate and are happy to be surrounded by people who are also vaccinated.
“It’s great that, at least when you feel safe, you have someone to be safe with,” said Lynn Bender. “We have reached the point now where we can socialize with someone, play cards or mahjong.”
They missed attending art and craft fairs and supporting artists and artisans from across the country throughout the year, something they are eager to do when they can let their guard down even more.
“We really haven’t changed much, everyone is still being cautious,” she said. “But, as one of my friends says, knowing that you are not going to die makes you feel better.”
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Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Miami and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.