Analysis

Why Vaccines Alone Will Not End the Pandemic New estimates suggest the vaccine rollout is no match for the severity of the U.S. outbreak, and stricter social distancing measures are needed to reduce infections. nytimes

The coronavirus pandemic in the United States has raged almost uncontrollably for so long that even if millions of people are vaccinated, millions more will still be infected and become ill unless people continue to wear masks and maintain social distancing measures until midsummer or later, according to a new model by scientists at Columbia University.

Faced with a slow, chaotic vaccine rollout and ever-rising Covid-19 cases, President Biden has an ambitious plan: to administer 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine in his first 100 days in office. Since the vaccines became publicly available in mid-December, 16.5 million shots have made their way into the arms of Americans, an average of 447,000 doses per day. Mr. Biden’s goal of more than doubling this rate can be achieved if the United States implements a vaccination campaign that treats Covid-19 more like an act of bioterrorism and less like the seasonal flu.