With the celebrations of July 4 this year, the administration of President Biden is marking successes in the fight against coronavirus. Vaccination reluctance continues in some parts of the United States, however, as a new variant of the virus spreads. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni reports on how things have changed over the past year.
A big change from a year ago… This weekend of July 4, about 47 million Americans are expected to travel by plane or car, according to the American Automobile Association. This is a 40% increase from last year.
“We are moving towards a very different summer compared to last year, a bright summer, a wine of joy thankfully,” said President Biden.
During this period last year, many Americans avoided or did not attend the celebrations marking the country’s Independence Day. At that time the country was facing a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
“Now we have a very big hearth. There have been as you know almost 140’000 deaths and we have several million infections. This is news to open our eyes “, said at that time Dr. Fauci.
While Operation Warp Speed by former President Trump’s administration had not yet produced an effective vaccine, the country’s response to COVID-19 was largely left to the states, often resulting in conflicting instructions. The number of people dying from the virus would peak at around 1’100 per day. But already, the picture is quite different.
“We have major changes – vaccines, of course, but we also know how to treat patients with COVID-19. We understand the therapies that we should use, those that have not resulted in problems “, says Dr. Taison Bell, of UVA Health Hospital.
Three federally authorized vaccines are now available. And with an aggressive vaccination campaign by the White House, states and local governments, deaths are falling – an average of 256 a day (according to the CDC).
“If you look at who is being hospitalized today, who are the people who get so much COVID that they have to go to the hospital, over 90% are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. In other words, vaccines are keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital; they are doing their job “, says Dr. William Schaffner, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
President Biden’s administration is estimating that more than 326 million doses have been administered – and that 54% of Americans have been fully vaccinated. But hesitation about vaccines continues, and the president’s goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4 was not achieved.
“We have seen that it has been much more difficult to vaccinate young people between the ages of 18 and 26 than older adults,” said Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary.
Those who are not vaccinated pose a risk to the general population through the spread of new and possibly more harmful COVID mutations, warns intensive care physician Taison Bell.
“Could there be another variant in the future that might have the mutation that helps it escape vaccines and then we would have to go back to A?” This is certainly possible “, says Dr. Bell.
The outbreaks of the Delta variant have caused new isolation measures in some parts of the world struggling with a record level of infections and deaths, with more than a quarter of cases in the United States now being attributed to this variant.
The World Health Organization says vaccine distribution is a major problem.
“The distribution of vaccines around the world is unequal. So some countries have really moved forward and vaccinated more than 50% of their population… But we have other countries and most of them, middle and low income countries, have vaccinated a little more “1% of their population… We have raised the alarm, louder and louder, telling countries that if you have taken doses, share them now.” Margaret Harris, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization.
Medical experts agree that hopes of alleviating the pandemic and having even more normal celebrations on July 4 next year depend on a more coordinated global effort.