Coronavirus Crisis Update: Dr. Jennifer Kates & Josh Michaud A Race Against Time.

Published: March 30, 2021, 4:19 p.m.

Dr. Jennifer Kates and Josh Michaud, Kaiser Family Foundation, take us on a tour d\u2019horizon.\xa0Rapidly accelerating vaccine coverage has resulted in \u201ca huge, huge change.\u201d By the end of June, we will have twice the volume of vaccines needed to inoculate America\u2019s 260 million adults.\xa0Improvements in testing and surveillance lag \u2013 \u201cWe can\u2019t just focus on one intervention.\u201d At the same time, state leaders relax controls, and variants increase transmissibility, concentrated among youth. \u201cWe are definitely at risk.\u201d\xa0The equity agenda? \u201cIt\u2019s not going well yet\u2026. Most states are not doing a good job on equity\u2026. It is the key aspect of this rollout over the next few months.\u201d\xa0Many southern states are weak performers on vaccines (AL, TN, TX, GA, AR, SC, MS) while many smaller states are strong performers (AK, ME, SD, ND, RI, WV, CT). 55% of Americans now \u201cwant to be vaccinated,\u201d\xa0while those who prefer to wait-and-see has dropped from 30% to 22%.\xa0But 15% are refusing, and another 7% will take the vaccine only if required. The chief challenge: how to reach Republican voters \u2013 especially male, rural, younger \u2013 with what message and what messenger? Digital certification of vaccination is \u201cgoing to happen\u201d but \u201ccan be quite fraught\u201d over privacy, discrimination, and civil liberty concerns.\xa0\n\nDr. Jennifer Kates is Senior Vice President for Global Health and HIV Policy; Josh Michaud is Associate Director for Global Health Policy, at the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, D.C.