[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Vaccine "hesitancy" in the UK is well under 10%. And dropping. Percentages who have had at least one dose of vaccine by age:

65+: 99%+
50-64: 97%+
35-49: about 60%
16-34: about 45%

The reason for the lower numbers at the lower ages is, of course, that the UK started vaccinating the oldest first.

And you didn't have people at the highest levels of government hesitating at first, then suggesting that the vaccine mandate was unmanly and a restriction on freedom, because they conflated a systematic rollout with political power issues. That didn't happen in the U.S. alone, of course. But once it did happen in the U.S., getting everyone vaccinated remained a political power issue in the House and Senate. One doesn't want to mention skirmishes between parties and between politicians, but it's difficult to account for the numbers in the U.S. if you don't. And many people in the rest of the world watched it happen.

What I do find worrisome is the CDC's lifting of meaningful precautions without the U.S. reaching a higher level of vaccination. The honor system can't be expected to work during a pandemic, and when complications such as the failure of antibodies in blood cancer patients put people at risk even after vaccination. That isn't a matter of panicking, but of choosing to be humane despite the inconvenience.