Dr. Marc Siegel: COVID, the vaccine and you – a doctor’s advice after Biden’s address
During his prime time address Thursday night, President Biden set out two key dates: May 1st, when he plans to direct states to make all adults eligible for COVID vaccines, and July 4th, when he expects the country to be able to fully reopen.I have some concerns about this timeline.First, even if enough vaccine from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson are available for all Americans by May 1st, defying the agreed upon timetable of approximately 700 million doses distributed by the end of May, we still have the major issue of vaccine compliance.In fact a recent Monmouth University poll found that 25 percent of Americans will still refuse the COVID vaccines.PSAKI PRESSED ON BIDEN’S FOURTH OF JULY GOAL, CAUTIONS IT’S NOT A ‘RETURN TO TOTAL NORMALCY’If non-compliance or vaccine hesitancy persists, that presents two major problems for the Biden administration.First, we will end up with hundreds of millions of doses more than we need, at a time when the rest of the world is vaccine-starved. Even if we manage to finally contain COVID-19 here, we need to defeat it in the rest of the world to ensure public health.Second, and even more disturbing, is the thin comma between the
