Previously published Jun 2. 2021
As Covid-19 vaccines start rolling out, it has become apparent that various countries have different approaches to vaccination progress. Let’s take a look at several countries and how their governments are handling vaccinations.
Israel currently has the highest percentage of their country vaccinated, far outpacing other countries. Although some might wholly attribute this to the size of the country and the population, many other factors contributed to this triumph, such as sophisticated electronic systems that can effectively reach out to high-risk individuals, early access to vaccines resulting from the rapid mobilization of government funds to purchase vaccines, and well-trained health care workers. Additionally, Israel has a centralized vaccine rollout plan with four nonprofit health initiatives in charge of distributing vaccines and ensuring efficient distribution.
On the other side of Europe, the British government plans to vaccinate most of the population with the first dose before moving on to the second dose since scientific literature has indicated that delaying the second dose increases vaccine efficacy. A study showed that when the booster shot is administered 12 weeks or more after the first shot, the effectiveness is 80% higher than administering the booster shot less than six weeks after the first shot.
Accounting for the total population, the United States has fully vaccinated the most people by far, reaching an astounding 90 million people vaccinated as of mid-April. Every adult in the United States could obtain a vaccine starting from April 19th, and alone, there are more than 20 million doses of vaccines administered. This prompted Newsom to release a statement that designated reopening of California by June 15, though the mask mandate will still be in place to ensure public safety. Despite these reopening plans, it is still important to remember to wear a mask and get vaccinated to stay safe during these tumultuous times.
Sources
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210315.476220/full/
