The Race to Vaccinate to Reach the Finish Line

You can call it the race to vaccinate. But how long will it take to get to the finish line?

With the announcement Wednesday that one million residents of San Diego County are now fully vaccinated against the COVID virus, it means that about one-third of the county’s total population has gotten the two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the one-shot dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Good progress for sure. County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten even calling it “Herculean” as she put it. But she adds a word of caution, saying that reaching one million fully vaccinated residents still puts us some distance away from the finish line.

That’s when another one million or so people are fully vaccinated and we get to 75 percent of the county’s 16 and over population to reach what we’re trying to get to; herd immunity.

She and other public health officials now say they’re concerned though that it could be harder to get to the two million mark than it was to reach one million. With everything from bars to water parks now opening up with the easing of restrictions, they worry that people are easing up on their concern about the virus. And the vaccination urgency since the first of the year has lessened.

Everyone wants this pandemic to end, but we’re not there yet, even if we are slowly getting closer to the finish line.

(Photo Getty Images)