Data Bytes: Vaccine Data

First in line, older Americans

Beginning on December 20, 2020, the vaccine effort prioritized older Americans.  Less than three months later, 60% of people aged 75 and older have received at least a single dose – that’s over 13 million people.  Approximately 30% of this age group have been fully vaccinated.  

With a recent surge in vaccine shipments, states are now rapidly expanding the pool – including the next age group of 50 -64 years old.    

Vaccines appear to be working!

Early on, nursing homes were hit hard by the pandemic.  The very first signs of the outbreak occurred in a nursing home in the state of Washington.  Since that time, thousands of nursing home residents have died.  Accordingly, when vaccines were made available in December, nursing home residents were some of the very first to receive them.  And nursing home COVID-19 cases have dropped dramatically.  

After two months of vaccinations, cases were down 94%!  In that same period, deaths plummeted from 7,049 to 1,350.    

Companies encourage employees to take COVID-19 vaccines.  

A recent Gartner survey shows most legal and human resource leaders (71%) will encourage their employees to get vaccinated, but not require it.  Only 8% of surveyed firms planned on mandatory vaccinations.  For most companies, the costs of mandating vaccinations outweigh the benefits.