A vaccine for the coronavirus, we were told, was supposed to be our salvation, our “way out” of the lockdown, “social distancing” nightmare.
Made ya look!
The news media are now pushing hysteria over the slow pace with which vaccines are being distributed, pointing the finger at — where else? — the Trump administration for failing to hit its own goal of 20 million vaccinations by the end of 2020. (So far, only 4 million have gotten the vaccine.)
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota on Monday berated Moncef Slaoui, the top adviser for the White House’s Warp Speed vaccination project, for the lag. “Vaccines don’t matter unless you vaccinate people,” babbled Camerota. She also offered the helpful suggestion that the federal government might host inoculation parties, wherein “you could fill stadiums, you could have convention centers, you could have people lined up and vaccinate tens of thousands in one fell swoop.”
The ignorance of TV journalists is vast.
Camerota is apparently unaware that vaccine administration is done the same way everything else is being done these days, with social distance. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that getting vaccinated by a pharmaceutical that was rushed through production at breakneck speed isn’t like getting a flu shot at Walgreens. There might be a COVID-19 test administered to patients before receiving the shot. And then afterward, healthcare providers are monitoring recipients for allergic reactions. That can’t be done by the “tens of thousands in one fell swoop.”
Nobody should have expected a smooth vaccine rollout for a virus that has proven deadly for an exceedingly small portion of the population. But because COVID-19 is a threat to very specific groups of people — the elderly and the immunocompromised — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that states distribute the vaccine first to those same people but only after healthcare workers receive it first.
Well, now, we’re seeing that many of those groups of people don’t even want the vaccine, either out of fear it will cause a negative reaction in their bodies or because individuals have seen firsthand that the virus is mostly harmless to the vast majority of people who contract it and take the reasonable risk that it would be for them, too.
The low immunization numbers come in the context of the sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci suggesting nearly 80% of the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated in order for us to reach herd immunity from the virus.
Remember “15 days to slow the spread?” Remember Fauci seeing “light at the end of the tunnel”? We’re coming up on the anniversary of those declarations. Feel free to celebrate, but do so at home, away from others, even though we now have a vaccine.
