Vaccination already having a major impact

While one can argue that at the beginning of the COVID vaccination process less priority was placed on speed than was optimal, the logic behind focusing on equity with age in particular as the primary criterion was sound, and we’re already seeing the effects:

The rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccines across the US is starting to work, according to a Financial Times analysis of official data that shows the number of deaths and hospital admissions are falling more quickly among older people than in the wider population. The US has overseen one of the fastest vaccination programmes in the world, administering more doses than any other country and vaccinating a large proportion of its population. Older people and those in nursing homes were first in line for vaccinations, resulting in a rapid decline in Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths among these groups in the past few weeks. The declines in these groups has been faster than in the rest of the population, which has also seen a broad-based reduction since the winter peak.

Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said: “Vaccines are already saving thousands of lives in the United States. Rapid declines in the number and proportion of deaths among nursing home residents are the direct result of vaccines saving lives.”

We’re still a ways away from vaccines being available to everyone, and further than that from life being back to something resembling “normal,” but the vaccine rollout is going to very sharply reduce hospitalizations and deaths well before we reach herd immunity.