“Literally a Race Against Time”: The Urgency for Coronavirus Vaccination

New, more transmissible strains of COVID-19 are more damaging than more fatal strains.

Well… it’s 2021. We made it.

But forgive me if I say it doesn’t exactly feel like it. The challenges of 2020 have chased us right into the New Year.

In the first week of 2021, 1.4 million new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the US. In that first week, 16,822 Americans died of coronavirus. That puts COVID-19, for now, the number 1 killer of Americans in 2021, outpacing deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

The best estimates, accounting for asymptomatic infections and variation in testing, suggest that 20% of the US has been infected with COVID-19. As the infection prevalence went from zero percent to 20%, 375,000 Americans died.

If it weren’t for the new vaccines, things would look pretty bleak. But the startlingly high efficacy rate of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which started rolling out on the darkest days of the year, bring hope. The sun is rising earlier and setting later again.