Vaccination skepticism

Vaccination skepticism is higher among registered Republicans, white people without a college degree, and lower-income households. Apparently, wealthy educated liberal white people are less skeptical of the vaccines.

The evidence shows that a full dose of the vaccine effectively eliminates the risk of Covid-19 death, nearly eliminates the risk of hospitalization and drastically reduces a person’s ability to infect somebody else. All of that is also true about the virus’s new variants.

However, misinformation remains. Many people do not understand the science. People fear the unknown.

“The coronavirus vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective. Vaccinated people may still be contagious. The variants may make everything worse.”

This is true and misleading. Nothing is 100% effective. But it substantially lowers the risk of any serious illness.

The one-shot coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson also provides strong protection against severe disease and death from Covid-19.  The vaccine will reduce the spread of the virus by vaccinated people, according to new analyses posted online by the FDA.

The weekly vaccine supply to states will increase by one million doses, to 14.5 million, the White House said.

Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson say they will produce enough doses next month to vaccinate about 130 million people in the U.S. — roughly half of all adults.

The F.D.A. will allow the Pfizer vaccines to be stored in standard freezers. This expands the number of sites that can administer the shot. The company has said the shots can last for two weeks in standard freezers.

Please get vaccinated when you can. Global deaths from the coronavirus fell by 20 percent last week.