I've been working the early-morning covid Doom and Gloom shift since the beginning of the pandemic, so it's hard to let myself believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel that isn't an oncoming train.
But it looks like we can meet Joe Biden's 70% vaccination goal by July 4th if we can encourage slightly more people to get that first dose. Check out this segment from CNN New Day with John Berman and Harry Enten:
"Take a look here. This is coronavirus cases, new cases in the past week versus the previous week. Look at all this green on the screen. New cases are down. The only red is in the West. The reason California is so red is they were so, so low. Overall, a solid picture," Harry Enten said.
"Green, just about everybody. What about daily dose?"
Enten pointed out that daily deaths have dropped. "This dropped all the way down here, now down to less than 0.2 deaths per 100,000 residents. So good news on the coronavirus," Enten said.
Vaccinations?
"Here's exactly where we stand. With at least one vaccine dose, all Americans, north of that 50% mark, again, good news. Adults nearing 63%. So, again, we're higher than we were, but perhaps as you were pointing out, lower. We're just at about 63%. What's the date? The 3rd? June 3rd."
"President Biden wants to be at 70% by July 4th. Are we going to hit that?" Berman asked.
"No, not at the rate we saw last week. If we continue having new vaccinations, the people getting new doses at the rate we did over the last week, where will we be on July 4th? 68% of the adult population. If new vaccines go up to, say, we were at the rate two weeks ago instead of last week? We will hit that 70% mark. Same with three weeks ago. So we need to boost the number of new people who get vaccinated."
"This is interesting. If we continue doing what we're doing, we won't get there. We were on pace, but something happened in the last week where we slowed down. Who do we need to reach in order to get to 70%?"
"Basically, if you look at the last month's Kaiser Foundation family poll, adults getting one dose, at that point it was 62%. We need to add in those who said they will get their first vaccine as soon as possible. That jumps us to 66%. Then the wait-and-see group who said they'll get one in the next three months. That's an additional 4%. If we add all of those groups together, we'll get to 70%.
"If we can get the folks on the sideline who are not sure, that's our best shot at getting 70%."
"They're saying they'll get it in the next three months. The CDC is saying don't wait," Berman concluded.
In the push to reach that goal, the Biden administration has partnered with more corporations to get more vaccine incentives -- like beer. And look at all this other stuff you're eligible for -- including child care while you recuperate!
We already know incentives work, so here's hoping we get there.
