CDC data shows that less than 2% of Americans have received both doses of COVID-19 vaccines

For whatever reasons, Americans are not eager to take the coronavirus vaccines. Even with millions of lives lost around the world, so far, less than 2% of Americans have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As we reported two days ago, more than half of Americans said they would refuse or “delay” taking the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey showed that 31% of Americans say they want to see further results about the vaccine’s effectiveness and side effects before committing to the shot.

Another 13% are outright refusing to take the vaccine altogether. While another 7% claim they only will take the vaccine if forced, taking together, the total of respondents reluctant to take or hesitant of the vaccine adds up to 51 percent.

Across the US, nearly 34 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered so far. Of the 34 million, more than 27 million people have received at least one dose — or just over 8% of the population. About 6.4 million people have received both doses, the CDC data shows.

Meanwhile. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, told CNN in an interview that about 70% to 85% of the US population should be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before the country can begin to return to a sense of normalcy.

As the country continues to make progress in administering the vaccines, there are concerns about the new variants of the virus and vaccine efficacy. Some studies have suggested a variant from South Africa could pose a problem for vaccines, while a new report this week said a mutation that could impact vaccines has also been detected in samples of the B.1.1.7 strain.

Dr. Fauci said he’s hopeful the country can get to that high level of vaccinations by the end of the summer to the beginning of fall. “Having said that,” he added, “there is an absolute ‘but’ in that. And the ‘but’ is that we have to address the variants.”

Dr. Fauci said the best thing Americans can do now is to prevent the virus from spreading further and mutating. He added:

“The only way a virus mutates (is) if it can replicate. So if you vaccinate people and double down on public health measures and keep the level of viral dynamics low we will not have an easy evolution into mutations,” he said. “That’s something that people really need to understand. The way you stop those mutations: Get vaccinated and abide by the public health measures.”