Thread by @chrischirp

SHORT THREAD on the US & Covid:

The US has made rapid progress in vaccinating its population, and supply is not an issue.

But demand has steadily fallen since April. The UK meanwhile has kept up a more constant rate of vaccination - we've not exhausted our demand yet! 1/5

And this is translating into population coverage.

The UK is ahead of the US now in both first doses *and* people fully vaccinated (even with our longer interval between doses) - and our coverage is increasing faster than the US. 2/5

The US has more vaccine hesistancy than the UK and this is now making itself felt - with particularly Republican states having lower rates of vaccine uptake.

States are trying to incentivise vaccination through prizes, food, beer...

newsweek.com/states-sending… 3/5

But if the US remains stuck below 50% of population fully vaccinated then this could be a problem for controlling Covid.

Particularly as the Delta variant (more transmissible, more severe, dominant in UK) is rapidly spreading there. 4/5

Daily cases in the US are as low as they've ever been but they've stopped falling.

I would not be surprised if they start going up rapidly if Delta becomes dominant in a few weeks, just as we have seen here in the UK. And the US will have lower vaccine protection. :-( 5/5