As COVID-19 deaths per day continue to rise, states have begun the effort to vaccinate dangerous populations, such as doctors, nurses, and nursing home workers. The federal government sends each state an allotment of vaccines each week, according to NPR, but it is up to the states to decide how to distribute these vaccines and who to distribute them to.
However, officials have begun to worry that despite the massive effort to administer vaccines, the US population doesn't hold enough trust in the vaccine for the United States to reach herd immunity. In DC, Maryland, and Virginia, where nursing home workers were among the first populations to be offered vaccines, a staggering amount of those offered the vaccine chose not to take it. One organization of nursing home workers in DC and Maryland said that 80 percent of its members did not take the vaccine, according to The Washington Post.
Experts attribute this to the large ratio of minorities and lower-income individuals working in nursing homes, who historically have been treated unequally by the medical industry and as such may have lower trust in doctors and medicine. Baseless claims about negative effects of vaccines, as well as conspiracy theories, have also spread especially easily on social media, and have contributed to this distrust.
The city of Portland has also struggled with distrust of the vaccine in minority populations, reported News10, a local news channel.
This distrust could spell out trouble. According to an article from Vox , 70 to 80 percent of the country must be vaccinated for it to reach herd immunity and have sufficient protection for the population that chooses to not get the vaccine. Step 1, creating the vaccine, is out of the way, but experts now face a new challenge: creating confidence in the American people.
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