And if you spend a lot of time talking to people, you can unpack it, and you can change minds.īut it takes time and it's a really hard thing to scale when we're in the midst of a crisis. And they come to me with - earnestly, but armed with lies, lies that they have seen online, unfortunately, lies that they have heard repeated from political leaders. I have spoken to lots of people who are not yet vaccinated. And, unfortunately, when political leaders make a political issue out of simple biology, which is that the virus is deadly and the vaccines protect people, it unfortunately deters people from getting vaccinated. Well, there was an interesting study that just came out today in "The Lancet" or just came out recently in "The Lancet" looking at probably the single biggest predictor of how countries have performed in terms of COVID outcomes. We have really lagged there compared to other countries in terms of getting third doses out to particularly people over the age of 60.īut, really, all adults, if you're not yet vaccinated, you haven't protected yourself against the worst harms that this virus can cause. That includes people who are in the nursing home who may benefit from having a third dose. And, for many people, it's much easier to find lies about the vaccines than the truth and to find information about the benefits of these vaccines.So, we really need to do more.Īnd we also need to make sure that we protect the people who are most likely to suffer the severe outcomes of COVID. So we also have an information environment where people are trying to do their research on vaccines. But the fact of the matter is, if you're vaccinated against COVID, the likelihood that you will wind up in the hospital is very, very low, compared to people who are not vaccinated. Many people, I think, are probably focusing on the fact that they know somebody who've gotten vaccinated and they still got COVID. But I think we also have not done enough of an effort to emphasize the benefits of vaccines, the fact that they prevent you from severe illness and death. So I think, in some places, people still do have a hard time getting vaccinated, in part because maybe they work hours that are not conducive to going to get vaccines. And people who are not protected from severe illness by vaccine are, unfortunately, the ones most likely to die. Jennifer Nuzzo, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: I mean, first of all, we have to acknowledge that it's a complete and utter tragedy, because the vast majority of the deaths have been preventable, because many of them have occurred, in fact, most of them have occurred since the development of the COVID-19 vaccines.īut what we're really seeing is the effect of the United States not making enough progress in vaccinating adults against the virus. What accounts for this high death rate, the U.S., as compared to its peer nations?ĭr.
We dig into that now with Jennifer Nuzzo, who studies epidemiology and global health at the Johns Hopkins Center For Health. rate was higher than Britain, Germany, Canada, and Japan, just to name a few.Īnd the disparity has been even worse during the spread of Omicron. And, as you can see on this simplified chart of The Times' data, the U.S. death rate for COVID to other wealthy industrialized countries. Judy, those troubling statistics have been persistent since COVID first spread.Īnd, today, an analysis by The New York Times underscores just how deep these problems are.
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