CLAIM
“In five weeks, America administered more COVID vaccines than any other country in the world.”
DETAILS
Necessary: Publicly available data shows that the United States administered more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine than any other country in early March 2021.
Lack of context: Although the United States has administered a large number of doses, the proportion of Americans who received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is less than the proportion of people vaccinated in other countries, such as Israel or Chile.
LEAD FROM THE KEY
Several countries, including the United States, began launching COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020. So far, the United States has administered more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine than any other country in the world. However, the majority of the US population still needs to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus and reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. When measured as a proportion of the population, 15% of the US population received at least one dose of vaccine, compared to 30% of the UK population and 55% of the population of Israel.
COMPLETE COMPLAINT: “In five weeks, America administered more COVID vaccines than any other country in the world.”
REVIEW
The COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world since the beginning of 2020, causing more than 100 million confirmed cases and more than 2.5 million deaths worldwide to date, 500,000 of which have happened in the U.S. Since the first COVID-19 vaccines were authorized in December 2020, many countries have started major vaccination campaigns across the country. The vaccination rate differs between countries, reflecting differences in public health policies, vaccine supplies and local challenges, such as the lack of storage infrastructure or complex geography that makes transportation a challenge.
Comparing the strategies for implanting the COVID-19 vaccine between countries, some said that the United States is ahead in the vaccination campaign. For example, this Facebook post of March 1, 2021 stated that the United States “administered the largest number of COVID vaccines of any country” in the 5-week period from January 25, 2021 to March 1, 2021. The comparison of publicly available data has shown that this is more accurate.
However, the US vaccination campaign is not ahead of other countries in terms of the proportion of the population that received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Our World in Data has compiled vaccination data using publicly available official data sets from various countries. The graph in Figure 1 shows that the US administered more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine than any other country included in the analysis.
Figure 1. Cumulative number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered by several countries worldwide, compiled on March 2, 2021. The curves represent how many doses have been administered in each country since the start of vaccination campaigns.
The United States administered 54.17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine between January 25 and March 1, reaching a total of 76.90 million since the campaign began. This is in line with data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. The number of doses of vaccines administered by the United States is currently greater than those administered by other pioneers, such as China, which administered 29.75 million doses, or the United Kingdom, which administered 13.77 million doses in the same period. .
While it is correct to say that the United States has administered more doses than any other country, this figure is somewhat misleading if the size of the population is not taken into account. The impact of a country-wide vaccination campaign depends on the proportion of people vaccinated. Therefore, it is important to take into account not only the absolute number of doses of the vaccine administered, but also the proportion of people vaccinated in relation to the entire population.
When the number of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered is reported as a proportion of the population in each country, Israel is currently ahead of all other countries, as 55.6% of the population has already received at least one dose of the vaccine (Figure 2) The USA is currently in sixth place, with 15.2% of the population having received at least one dose on March 1. This puts the United States behind the United Kingdom (30.2%), Chile (18%) and Bahrain (17%).
Figure 2. The graph represents the percentage of the population in each country that received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 2, 2021 (most COVID-19 vaccines require at least two doses for full effect).
In conclusion, it is correct to say that the USA administered more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine than any other country during the 5-week period from January 25, 2021 to March 1, 2021. However, it is important to keep in mind that the proportion of the population that received at least one dose of the vaccine is actually lower in the United States than in other countries in the world.