About half of American adults have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to data from the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was released Saturday.
Across the country, more than 128 million people over the age of 18 have received at least one shot, with more than 82 million fully vaccinated with one of three vaccines approved for emergency use in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Overall, 49.7% of American adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to the data, and nearly a third are fully vaccinated.
The milestone comes a day after the The CDC announced that 30% of American adults had been completely vaccinated, a percentage likely to rise rapidly in the coming weeks following President Biden’s decision to open vaccine eligibility to all Americans over 18 years Monday.
Three vaccines have received emergency authorization in the US – Inoculations of Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, although federal officials this week recommended a break in Johnson & Johnson vaccine administration due to six reported cases of blood clots from more than 6.8 million people who received the shot.
Johnson & Johnson scientists said Friday that there is currently “insufficient” evidence of a “causal relationship” between their single-dose vaccine and the brain’s blood clot known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. The US-recommended pause has raised concerns about the progress of vaccine distribution and hesitation.
Director of CDC Rochelle WalenskyRochelle WalenskyOvernight Health: NIH reverses Trump ban on fetal tissue research | Biden reverses .7B to combat virus variants | CDC panel to meet again on Friday at J&J CDC advisory panel to meet again on J&J vaccine in a week Biden administration will invest .7B in monitoring, fighting COVID-19 variants MORE said Friday an independent advisory committee we will meet again next week resume discussions on whether to continue the Johnson & Johnson firing pause.
The distribution pause has already had an impact on the public perception of the vaccine, with an Economist-YouGov survey posted Thursday showing that only 37 percent indicated they believed the inoculation was safe, below the 52 percent who said the same before the announcement.
Despite concerns about shooting safety, Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciOvernight Health: NIH reverses Trump ban on fetal tissue research | Biden reverses .7B to combat virus variants | The CDC group will meet again Friday with Bret Baier of J&J Fox News publishes a vaccination selfie 12:30 report from The Hill: Nearly Half of U.S. Adults Partially or Totally Vaccinated MORE, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said Wednesday he believed the stop it could actually decrease hesitation showing the seriousness of federal agencies taking vaccine safety.
Updated vaccination figures released on Saturday come after officials pressured larger areas of the country to get vaccinated. Fauci told Business Insider in an interview last week that between 70 and 85 percent of the U.S. population should be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
The United States has had a more effective distribution of vaccines than some other countries, especially in Europe, where The World Health Organization said earlier this month that vaccines have been rolled out “Unacceptably slow.”
Even amid rising vaccinations, cases and deaths around the world continue to persist, with the world surpassing the 3 million coronavirus-related fatalities Saturday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
According to the tracker, the United States has recorded deaths from COVID-19 with more than 566,000, followed by Brazil with more than 368,000 deaths and Mexico with more than 211,000.