Covid vaccines have fallen in parts of the US and Europe

When coronavirus vaccines were developed, tested, and authorized for emergency use in record time, millions of people eagerly awaited the protection and peace of mind they provided.

But about nine months after vaccines began to be developed in the West, there has been a slowdown in some national and state vaccination actions across the United States and Europe.

This slowdown, combined with a slow uptake in some areas, worries experts. In particular, many Covid preventive measures have been relaxed and cases are increasing in both the US and parts of Europe.

“The stagnation of vaccine recruitment in our region is a serious concern,” Dr Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for the European region, said in a press release last week.

“Now that public health and social measures are relaxing in many countries, acceptance of public vaccination is crucial if we are to prevent greater transmission, more serious diseases, an increase in deaths and a higher risk than new variants of concern appear “.

He said there had been 64 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths in the region, which includes 53 countries ranging from Western Europe to Russia and its surrounding countries. Kluge added that 33 countries in the region reported a more than 10% increase in the 14-day case incidence rate.

“This high transmission is deeply worrying, especially in light of low vaccination in priority populations in several countries,” Kluge said.

“In the last 6 weeks, the uptake of vaccines in the region has decreased, influenced by the lack of access to vaccines in some countries and the lack of acceptance of vaccines in others. To date, only 6% of the middle-income countries in our region have completed a full range of vaccinations. “

Vaccination programs began late last year in both Europe and the United States at different speeds. Although the UK and US began vaccinating the elderly and healthcare workers quickly, the EU’s momentum was slower as a result of late orders, supply restrictions and controversy over clinical data (mainly with the shooting of AstraZeneca) that hindered the progress of some releases. in the EU.

However, these teething problems have been largely solved, and now a large proportion of adults and youth in the U.S. and Europe are completely vaccinated.

So far, 69.2% of adults in the EU are now fully vaccinated, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (although the European Commission announced last Tuesday that it has reached its target of vaccinating 70% of the EU adult population).

In the UK, 79.8% of all over-16s are fully vaccinated and in the United States, 62% of the population over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Vaccinating millions in the short term and under pressure during a public health crisis is an undeniable success, but as vaccination drives have advanced, they have slowed in several countries, according to figures from Our World in Data.

The sharp slowdown in vaccinations in early summer led the United States to reach President Biden’s goal of giving a dose to 70% of all adults on July 4 a month late, with the goal achieved on August 2nd. , between the ages of 18 and 29, who do not show up for their shots.

“The country has more work to do … particularly with young people aged 18 to 26,” said Jeffrey Zients, a senior White House adviser, COVID-19, in late June, when it became clear that the goal would be lost. “The reality is that a lot of younger Americans have felt that Covid-19 doesn’t affect them, and they’ve been less eager to get the shot.”

Similarly, in Europe there has been a smaller (and slower) uptake among young adults and, again, this has been attributed to a more relaxed attitude among young people towards Covid. They are at much less risk than older people from hospitalization and death, and the reopening of societies this summer seems to have removed the incentive for some to be vaccinated.

As vaccine implementation has advanced in the United States, the divergence in vaccination rates across the United States has become more pronounced, varying widely across the country, with southern states tending to stay behind its northern counterparts. Some states have been encouraged by the president to offer cash incentives to try to attract people to get a chance.

The slowdown in vaccination rates is worrisome because it allows the virus to spread. This, in turn, could allow the emergence of new variants, which could weaken the effectiveness of existing Covid vaccines.

The United States has experienced the spread of the highly infectious Covid delta variant this summer. It has been particularly virulent in states with low vaccination coverage, such as Louisiana, Idaho and Mississippi, where the state’s top health official said in early August that the virus was spreading the state “like a tsunami.”

Experts say there is no reason for the slowdown in vaccinations, as currently the supply of vaccines is not a problem in the US or Europe.

While younger people may not feel the urgent need to get vaccinated, others continue to reject vaccines because of concerns about the long-term safety of fast-developing vaccines. This is despite health agencies and experts supporting Covid’s blows as “incredibly effective”.

As vaccination drives progress, those who reject the shot are likely to become more evident, an epidemiologist told CNBC.

“My gut feeling is that it’s a combination of everything that’s obvious: considering the improved vaccine intake everywhere in relation to the expectations of early-day opinion polls (remember some of the terrible predictions of the United States and France?), It is now possible to stay with the residual refuseniks that, by age groups and beliefs, may be among the objectors of the hard line, “Danny Altmann, a professor, told CNBC on Tuesday of Immunology from Imperial College London.

There is a wide divergence in acceptance and hesitation rates of the Covid vaccine in the US and Europe. Vaccine uptake is traditionally high in the UK and Spain, a factor that has facilitated vaccination programs against Covid, while France has had a much more widespread hesitation towards the Covid vaccine.

Vaccination rates differ greatly in Europe today, with the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe, Russia and its neighbors, lagging behind their Western European counterparts.

According to the latest Morning Consult vaccine follow-up survey, which conducts more than 75,000 weekly interviews in 15 countries in 15 countries on the deployment of the Covid vaccine, the hesitation against the Covid vaccine remains the highest in Russia and to the United States.

The most recent data, based on surveys conducted between August 17 and August. 23 (and with 45,604 interviews conducted in America) showed that Russia and the United States continue to have the highest rates of opposition to the vaccine among all countries surveyed. 31% of Russians said they were unwilling to receive the Covid vaccine (and another 16% were unsure if they should receive it) and 18% of Americans did not want to receive the shot, with 10 % month.

Meanwhile, millions of people in other countries have no choice but to receive a vaccine against Covid. Although 40.3% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, only 1.8% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to Our World in Data.