According to a report posted on the website of CNN, the Kaiser Family Foundation determined that 55 percent of adults are now willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as available up from 47 percent in January.  The hesitant group expressing a wait-and-see approach has dropped from 39 percent to 22 percent since the beginning of 2021.  The hardline rejectors still comprise 20 percent of the population.

In September 2020, only 15 percent of adults surveyed said that they would receive a COVID-19 vaccine when available.  The proportion of ‘acceptors’ has increased progressively to more than half of the U.S. population.

With the approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and projected increased production of this single-dose product using Merck facilities, there should be sufficient vaccine available for all adults in the U.S. by the end of May according to the Administration.

The quicker that vaccines can be deployed and administered, the lower will be the opportunity for emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2. These could be more transmissible, show greater pathogenicity or be refractory to vaccines and current therapeutic modalities or a combination of these attributes.  The U.S. is clearly racing the virus using science and logistics but requiring the cooperation of as many of our citizens as possible to reduce the number of susceptible individuals to below a level of 15 percent of the population by mid-summer.