Beating back Covid-19 right now comes down to balancing supply and demand. With hopes pinned to vaccines, demand has far outstripped the supply of doses.
But, as an increasing number of vaccine vials are shipped in coming weeks, the concern about shortages may well shift to human capital: the vaccinators themselves.
CHICAGO — A nation numbed by misery and loss is confronting a number that still has the power to shock: 500,000.
Roughly one year since the first known death by the coronavirus in the United States, an unfathomable toll is nearing — the loss of half a million people.
No other country has counted so many deaths in the pandemic. More Americans have perished from Covid-19 than on the battlefields of World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.
The milestone comes at a hopeful moment: New virus cases are down sharply, deaths are slowing and vaccines are steadily being administered.
TALLAHASSEE — Florida is getting four federally-backed Covid-19 vaccination hubs in largely low-income communities of color, an announcement that comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis initially clashed with the Biden administration over federal vaccine help.
Since Dec. 14, 2020, when an intensive care nurse in New York became the first American to receive an injection of a COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. has allotted 55.6 million initial doses of two cutting-edge inoculations, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, that represent the greatest hope for closure to a pandemic that has claimed 2 million lives worldwide, including nearly 496,000 Americans—by far the largest toll of any nation.
NEW YORK (AP) — Efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19 have been stymied by a series of winter storms and outages that have hobbled transportation hubs and highways in parts of the country not used to extreme cold weather.
The White House said Friday that winter storms have caused a backlog of 6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, about three days worth of shipments, but they expect to clear the backlog within a week.