The pandemic changed the lives of everyone around the world, there has been suffering, but there has also been a lot of learning and adapting, and although we have been accepting the changes little by little, the appearance of the vaccine brought hope to all of us and gave us permission to think about our lives before the pandemic again. With so many uncertainties during the last two years, a new question has arisen. Will the coronavirus vaccine end the pandemic?
The answer to this question has many factors that influence it. In an ideal world, the answer would be yes, in our real world, there are many aspects to consider, and it mostly depends on the people.
What is herd immunity?
To start explaining how it will be difficult and depending on the people to end the pandemic, we should know what herd immunity is.
The term is used to explain the process in which so many people are vaccinated, that the transmission inside the population is almost non-existent. By getting vaccinated, we all protect each other. Nonetheless, the percentage of the population that needs to get the coronavirus vaccinated to achieve herd immunity varies from sickness to sickness.
“The vaccine is crucial for reaching the herd immunity threshold we need to return to normal life.” (Piedmont Healthcare, 2021)
In order to achieve herd immunity for the streets and public places to be actually safe again, between 70 and 90% of the population should be vaccinated. Now, we are getting closer to that number in certain countries, but there are many other countries that haven’t reached 50%, so traveling makes it more difficult to define a specific time to the end of the pandemic. (Piedmont Healthcare, 2021)
Talking in general, optimistic terms, more than 280 million people should have to be fully vaccinated in the United States for public spaces to be “safe” again. This means that more than 560 million doses of the vaccine must be given out. If you are wondering how and when can I get the coronavirus vaccine, you should read our related article
The uncertainty regarding the vaccine
Another aspect that is slowing down going back to normal, is that even if 70% of the world was vaccinated, the COVID vaccine does not prevent the sickness 100%.
This means that getting vaccinated does protect you and does avoid serious illness and death. And even though getting vaccinated is definitely the best call, the coronavirus vaccine is not a permission to stop wearing a mask or stop social distancing.
People who have already been vaccinated can still get sick, and most likely they can still spread the virus if they get sick.
Many countries, including the United States have had new spikes of active cases in the last month, and this is mostly due to the spread of new variants of the virus because thousands of people have stopped being careful.
At the beginning of June 2021, there were less than 4,000 active COVID cases in the country, while more than 62,000 active cases were reported for July the 20th of this same year. (JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data and Our World in Data, 2021)
Therefore, awareness should be immediately raised about this. You should get the coronavirus vaccinated with both doses as soon as possible since it will help end the pandemic sooner and it will protect you from severe illness and death if you get sick. But you also have to keep following public health measures.
Keep washing your hands, wearing a mask and social distance, at least until more percentage of the population is vaccinated and it is true that it is safer to go “back to normal.”
Keep in mind that Medical Centers such as Formé keep contributing to the community by providing all the services related to COVID. If you are interested in our immunization campaigns, contact us at 914 723 4900.
