America's nightmarish year is finally ending

[babylonsister]

What a difference a competent president makes!

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccines-biden-america-f1f29e00-6fac-4f48-9f0d-f8b9d9e590d8.html

3 hours ago - Health
America's nightmarish year is finally ending
Sam Baker

snip//


Yes, but: Last March, even the sunniest optimists didn’t expect the U.S. to have a vaccine by now.

They certainly didn’t anticipate that over 300 million shots would already be in arms worldwide, and they didn't think the eventual vaccines, whenever they arrived, would be anywhere near as effective as these shots turned out to be.

Where it stands: President Biden has said every American adult who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by the end of May, and the country is on track to meet that target.

The U.S. is administering over 2 million shots per day, on average. Roughly 25% of the adult population has gotten at least one shot.

The federal government has purchased more doses than this country will be able to use: 300 million from Pfizer, 300 million from Moderna and 200 million from Johnson & Johnson.

The Pfizer and Moderna orders alone would be more than enough to fully vaccinate every American adult. (The vaccines aren’t yet authorized for use in children.)

Yes, millions of Americans are still anxiously awaiting their first shot — and navigating signup websites that are often frustrating and awful.

But the supply of available vaccines is expected to surge this month, and the companies say the bulk of those doses should be available by the end of May.

Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all falling sharply at the same time vaccinations are ramping up.

The bottom line: Measured in death, loss, isolation and financial ruin, one year has felt like an eternity. Measured as the time between the declaration of a pandemic and vaccinating 60 million Americans, one year is an instant.

The virus hasn’t been defeated, and may never fully go away. Getting back to “normal” will be a moving target. Nothing’s over yet. But the end of the worst of it — the long, brutal nightmare of death and suffering — is getting close.

[Johnny2X2X]

1. If Biden had taken over in early 2020

The GOP would be demanding congressional hearings to demand answers as to why Joe Biden let 25,000 Americans die from Covid.

[Irish_Dem]

4. If one person had died of Covid under Biden, he would be dragged through the mud.

[Midnightwalk]

2. About those frustrating awful websites

My impression is we are still the beta tests.

They seem a little rushed and have some bugs or features that don’t work perfectly or sometimes at all.

They’ll get the bugs and deficiencies fixed. Better to rush out something close to ready and mostly usable than delay the ability to sign up. There were one or two I’ve seen that really didn’t work, but they mostly do work.

There are some that seem to have issues with the volume of traffic.

I’m just glad to be able to see what’s available in our state (az) and was able to get first shot yesterday.

I don’t mind being a beta tester for this. I wish it was easier to tell them what isn’t working quite right.

[Freddie]

5. My husband registered w our local hospital 2 months ago

He finally got an email to make an appointment! Think a lot of it was just lack of supply. Get mine Sat. via my employer, yay.

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. The end is not close enough to be removing a mask mandate

It's just stupid. Pure stupidity.