The U.S. death toll caused by the coronavirus pandemic has already reached 300,000 as vaccine distribution starts.
The U.S. has posted around 16 million total coronavirus cases, the most in the world, based on the data gathered by Johns Hopkins University. Officials revealed more than 2,300 deaths on Saturday and over 3,300 deaths on Friday as cases continue to multiply.
The Food and Drug Administration has granted the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech emergency use authorization. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed off on the vaccine, allowing inoculations for people ages 16 or older to move forward. The initial doses will be received by health-care workers and residents in long-term care facilities.
Health experts believe that around 75%-80% of the U.S. population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity or a period where enough people are protected from the virus so it can be contained.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief medical advisor to Operation Warp Speed, said that he predicts that herd immunity will be achieved between May and June.
Vaccine distribution could only reduce the U.S. death toll by 9,000 by April 1, according to a report published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. Meanwhile, a rapid vaccine rollout targeting high-risk subjects could save a further 14,000 lives.
UMass Memorial Health Care reported a major influx of Covid-19 patients in its hospitals after the Thanksgiving holiday, Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care, told CNBC on Friday.
“The worst is unfortunately yet to come,” Dickson said. “There is nothing to suggest that the rate of hospitalizations is going to slow down. So at this point, we’re absolutely confident that this will be worse than the first surge.”
Dickson called on “the public to do everything they can to prevent the spread of this infection for the next two months” to stop further strain on the health-care system while coronavirus vaccines are being shipped out to health-care workers and vulnerable groups.
“If you can give us those two months, we’ll bring the hospitalizations down, we’ll have enough room, we’ll have the workforce to deliver the vaccine and we’ll be out of this thing in early summer,” Dickson said.
“But if we don’t get the public’s help during those two months, it’s going to be a horrible, horrible long winter because there will be a lot of people dying that didn’t have to die,” he said.
Vaccination timeline
Meanwhile, investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts that more than 70% of people in developed countries will be vaccinated against the virus by fall 2021.
Goldman Economists Daan Struyven and Sid Bhushan presented a coronavirus vaccine distribution timeline using a combination of supply estimates and demand based on consumer survey data.
They gathered data from leading Covid-19 vaccine developers Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Novavax. The economists initially predicted that the initial doses of Covid-19 vaccines would be given to the most high-risk groups of people in the U.S. from mid-December onwards.
Vaccine approval and rollout could result in “significant public health benefits” from the initial quarter of next year, the economists noted, with half of the population of the U.S. and Canada likely to be vaccinated in April.
