Half Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten A Vaccine — But Hurdles Remain For Herd Immunity

Short Wave

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🗓️ 20 April 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

Today, NPR Health Correspondent Allison Aubrey offers perspective on how to think about the latest coronavirus news. On one hand, half of U.S. adults have been vaccinated and as of this week, everyone 16 years old and up is eligible to be vaccinated. At the same time, the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been paused and many are still hesitant to get vaccinated.

Coronavirus on your mind? Email us at [email protected] — with your questions about the latest developments.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:06.1	Hey everybody, Emily Quonk here with NPR Health Correspondent, Alison Aubrey.
0:10.0	Hey lady, what's up?
0:11.0	Hey, Emily, great to be here.
0:13.0	I was always excited to have you on the show, but more so than usual today because you've
0:19.2	got some great vaccine news for us, yeah?
0:21.2	Yes, well, we've hit a milestone.
0:23.5	Half of adults in the US have now received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine.
0:29.0	And as of yesterday, everyone 16 and up in every state around the country is eligible
0:34.3	to get a COVID vaccine.
0:36.1	Yeah, it's a huge milestone.
0:37.9	It's actually pretty remarkable that we're here, you know?
0:40.6	That's right.
0:41.6	And I will say I do have to measure this a little because as more contagious variants
0:46.0	continue to spread, the challenge, of course, is to get the second half of the population
0:50.9	vaccinated.
0:51.9	And this is a challenge given how many people are resident.
0:55.1	If you have not been vaccinated, I want to encourage you to do so with one of the available
0:59.9	vaccines as soon as you can.
1:02.5	That is CDC director Dr. Russo Wollensky, who says getting as many people vaccinated as
1:07.2	quickly as possible is key to putting this pandemic behind us.
1:13.5	Today on the show, Alison Aubrey offers us some necessary perspective.
	...

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