The Real State Of The Pandemic

WAMU 88.5 | By Paige Osburn

Published May 25, 2021 at 5:01 PM EDT

People eat sitting outside of a restaurant on Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The United States is expected to pass another COVID-19 milestone this week. More than 130.6 million American adults are now fully vaccinated.

New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make it clear that if you’re fully vaccinated, your life can (mostly) go back to normal. That, coupled with declining case and death numbers, has led some Americans to believe the pandemic is “over.”

But a new analysis from The Washington Post shows that when you look at America’s unvaccinated population, the numbers aren’t so rosy.The case rate for unvaccinated Americans is roughly 69 percent higher than the standard figures we see publicized. The death rate is virtually the same as it was two months ago.

The state of the global pandemic is even more bleak. If you look at the world as a whole, just 22 doses have been administered for every 100 people. Those doses are mostly concentrated in the world’s wealthiest countries.

So, what is really the state of the pandemic? And how do we reconcile one reality for the vaccinated with another for those who still need their shot?