Well, maybe we disagree a bit more than that.
I’ll give you an example. We have a huge Walmart distribution Center on the outskirts of town and a few weeks back they had a dozen med professionals go out to the facility loaded with some 600+ doses. They were there the entire day and inoculated a grand total of 42 people. Nobody else would take it.
Maybe not what the majority of folks in this town are thinking but it does give one an indication.
Also possible there’s a lot of people there waiting for the full FDA authorization to come. Pfizer and Moderna have all the data required. They should be submitting the paperwork in May. Nothing holding it up besides bureaucratic red tape, so expect to see that come through in the later summer or fall.
Hopefully that brings a lot of the folks in your town to a level of comfort that they will take the vaccines. The more who are vaccinated, the less opportunity this thing has to spread and mutate. I want the pandemic to end along with all the destructive actions of state and local governments. President Trump’s vaccines make that happen quicker than anything else.
I guess the question might be how many of those people already had at least their 1st shot or were scheduled up for such. In my county I think the vast majority of people getting COVID-19 vacc shots got them @ the “mass clinics”, at which you have to have an appointment (by phone, online, through PCP, etc. A few weeks ago, though, most people under age 65 in my State were still not eligible.
That said, most counties near me, in-state and in adjacent states, are showing pretty steep declines in shots administered, despite recent opening up of shots to a much wider demographic, and plenty of supply. Factors discussed above: lack of a feeling of urgency, convenience*, and the psychological effect of the J&J pause, surely all are playing a role.
*Something else too: I don’t have a firm number, but, a LOT of the teachers at the parochial school my wife teaches at had the strong “fatigued” reaction the day after their 2nd shot; some had it for 2 days. At least several were “out” for a 1/2 a day or more. How much of this may have been psychosomatic I don’t know — I have my suspicions.
I suspect this info. “really got around” to and in and beyond the group of parents with high school or younger kids, almost all of whom (under 65) would just now be becoming eligible for vaccinations.
So, is the average under 65 weighing “likely” (it might seem to them) feeling crappy a day or two, maybe in bed a day / missing work or a planned activity, plus some small probability adverse risks and unknowns, vs. very likely eventually getting an asymptomatic COVID-19 case they may not spread, or even notice, and, oh, BTW, their elders are vaccinated.
????