According to data released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday, 70 per cent of US adults were given at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, nearly a month behind President Joe Biden's target date on July 4.
In early May, Biden set a goal of achieving a 70 per cent vaccination rate by Independence Day in the US, but by the holiday on July 4th, only 67 per cent of adults had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Health experts say that while the milestone is a major achievement for the country, it should be seen as a bottom line, not a ceiling, especially if highly contagious delta variants spread rapidly.
"We need at least 80 percent of the population to be vaccinated to really get some form of mass immunity," Dr. Paul Offit, a voting member of the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and related Biological products, said in a recent interview. "it's a highly contagious virus."
Dr Natasha Bhuyan, a family doctor at One Medical in Phoenix, said that while the 70 per cent milestone was important, some local communities with low vaccination rates remained worrisome.
As of Sunday, the average daily dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the US was about 660000 doses, well below the peak of more than 3 million in mid-April, but up 14 per cent from a week ago, according to CDC.
Although Biden has repeatedly urged Americans to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the "KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance" of the Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans are not easily persuaded on COVID-19 's vaccine position.
Looking back at a group of respondents who were initially surveyed in January, the KFF found that 2/3 of respondents who did not want to be vaccinated in January insisted on refusing to get vaccinated in June, 9 per cent wanted to wait and see, and 24 per cent received at least one dose of the vaccine, most of whom were persuaded by their families or employers. Of those who wanted to be vaccinated in January, 92% have now received at least one dose.
Biden recently announced a series of new measures to increase vaccination rates in the United States, including suggesting that states use funds previously allocated by the federal government to provide a reward of $100 per person for future vaccination.