Although countries like Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States have done particularly well getting COVID-19 vaccines into arms as fast as possible, vaccine hesitancy remains a serious hurdle.
In the U.S., it has already derailed President Joe Biden’s goal of administering at least one vaccine dose to 70% of the U.S. population by July 4.
In a CNN poll in April, about 26% of U.S. respondents said they do not intend to get vaccinated at all. That is a big problem, given that near-universal vaccination is the only reliable way to end the pandemic. Assuming, for example, that COVID-19 variants as contagious as measles become dominant, achieving herd immunity could require that 94% of the population is immune.