Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun published a report from New York and Washington, respectively, entitled “The progress of vaccination in the United States is slow”.
The full text is excerpted as follows:
The United States, which began to vaccinate people against the coronavirus last December, now has many problems emerging.
On February 5, Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City, became a large-scale vaccination site for coronavirus vaccine.
Temporary vaccination sheds were set up in the corridor of the field, and people wearing masks queued up outside the site.
This vaccination site is jointly managed by New York State and New York City and is expected to be vaccinated for 15,000 people per week.
“Vaccines are hard to book, but it may be better after that,” said Spencer López, who is in line.
There are about 160 vaccination sites in New York City, distributed in medical institutions, pharmacies, schools and other places.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that more than 7 million people in the state need to be vaccinated first, but as of the 7th of this month, only 1.6 million people had completed the first vaccination in the state, and only 700,000 people in New York City.
·Vaccine supply shortage: The fundamental reason for the slow progress of vaccination is that the supply of vaccines has not kept up with demand.
Over the past few days, the state government has repeatedly applied to the federal government for an increase in the supply of vaccines.
Fauci, chief medical adviser to the Biden administration and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, believes that to achieve “herd immunity”, that is, to control the epidemic by giving most people immunity to the novel coronavirus, the overall vaccination rate in the United States needs to reach 70% to 85%.
As of the 7th, about 31.6 million people had been vaccinated in the United States, accounting for only 9.6% of the total population.
· Shortage of medical personnel: The slow progress of vaccination is also due to insufficient staff.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California had received a total of 7 million doses of vaccines as of the 7th of this month, but the state has only vaccinated 4.5 million of them to the population, and the vaccine use rate is only about 65%.
California has seen a surge in confirmed cases since December last year, and health systems everywhere are under great pressure.
In this case, professional medical personnel do not care about vaccinate people, and some medical institutions have to let medical students take on the relevant tasks.
· Chaossy vaccination regulations: The situation has become very chaotic in the absence of unified vaccination regulations in the United States in various states and localities, coupled with the rush of the vaccination process, and the staff has not strictly confirmed the identity information of the inoculated person.
New York City originally limited vaccination coverage to workers in New York City, but many people who were interested in vaccination outside and out of the state flocked.
As a result, not only is it more difficult for citizens to make an appointment, but also the supply of vaccines is in crisis.
