A growing number of Americans have missed their scheduled second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna require two doses -- administered three and four weeks apart, respectively -- to be considered fully effective. But data shows about 8% of Americans have missed that important second dose -- up from about 3.4% in March.
It's not an exact count. The CDC is collecting data on vaccinations, but states don't report information immediately and must gather it from mass vaccination sites, retail pharmacies and various other vaccination efforts.
"If a person received the two doses from different reporting entities, those two doses may not have been linked together," a CDC spokesperson said.
"For example, if a person received their first dose at a clinic run by the state, and second dose from a tribal health clinic, they might not be linked and it could look like they missed the second dose." Read More
This development, while it is not entirely unexpected. is one of the reasons that we should not be overly-optimistic about a return to anything that approximates the kind of church life that we enjoyed before the COVID-19 pandemic. As long as the United States has pockets of its population that are not vaccinated or who are partially vaccinated, the country will face an ongoing risk of resurgences of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Churches that have taken down their social distancing signs will be putting them up again. Churches that have removed the ropes from every other pew will be roping them off again. Three things need to happen for this country to make a comeback from the pandemic. People need to take precautionary measures where and when they are necessary. People need to get fully vaccinated. People need to stop spreading nonsense on social media.
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