Public Health

Half of Americans have now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and with children ages 12 to 15 now eligible for immunizations, the United States appears to be getting the coronavirus pandemic under control. But despite the tremendous progress, it’s still not clear that the nation will ever truly reach the herd immunity threshold — the point at which enough people in a population are immune to a pathogen to limit its spread.

More important, we may not need to achieve that goal in order to escape the pandemic.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rises but needs boost Despite the rise, data show uneven levels of trust across US demographics. CIDRAP

Two new studies reveal that although COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has declined in the United States, 35.2% of adults 18 to 39 years and 8.7% of those 65 and older still said they would not partake as of March 2021 and November 2020, respectively.