Vaccination could allow US to reach herd immunity by late summer-- CNN analysis

Coronavirus update: Latest vaccine and world news The coronavirus pandemic has brought countries to a standstill. Meanwhile, vaccinations have already started in some countries as cases continue to rise. Follow here for the latest. By <a href="/profiles/jessie-yeung">Jessie Yeung</a> and <a href="/profiles/brett-mckeehan">Brett McKeehan</a>, CNN CNN

The pace of Covid-19 vaccine administration in the US continues to improve, each day bringing the country closer to herd immunity – the point at which enough people are protected against a disease that it cannot spread much.

This week, President Biden said the US will have enough vaccine for every adult by the end of May, and a CNN analysis of federal data shows that herd immunity is likely not far behind.

At the current pace of about two million shots per day – the latest seven-day average of doses administered reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – the US could reach herd immunity by late summer through vaccination alone. It will likely be even sooner, if factoring in individuals who may have some natural immunity due to prior infection. 

Herd immunity thresholds for Covid-19 are only estimates at this point. But experts generally agree that somewhere between 70% and 85% of the population must be protected to suppress the spread, a range that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has recently cited. 

More than 8% of the population – nearly 28 million people – is already fully vaccinated, according to the latest data from the CDC. 

If vaccination continues at its current rate and the two-dose vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were the only options available, 70% of the US population could be fully vaccinated by mid-September. 

But the US Food and Drug Administration recently authorized the Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine for emergency use, and the company has promised to deliver 100 million doses to the US in the first half of the year. 

At the current pace of about two million doses per day, including 100 million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 70% of the US population will be fully vaccinated around the end of July and 85% by mid-September, according to a CNN analysis. ...