Covid vaccinations have slumped in parts of the U.S. and Europe

When coronavirus vaccines were developed, trialed and authorized for emergency use in record time, millions of people eagerly awaited the protection and peace of mind they afforded.

But around nine months after vaccination rollouts began in the West there has been a slowdown in some national and state-wide immunization drives across the U.S. and Europe.

This slowdown, combined with a slow uptake in some areas, is worrying experts. Particularly as many Covid preventative measures have been relaxed and cases are rising in both the U.S. and parts of Europe.

“The stagnation in vaccine uptake in our region is of serious concern,” Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO’s European region, said in a press statement last week.

“Now that public health and social measures are being relaxed in many countries, the public’s vaccination acceptance is crucial if we are to avoid greater transmission, more severe disease, an increase in deaths and a bigger risk that new variants of concern will emerge.”

He said there had been 64 million confirmed cases and 1.3 million deaths in the region, which comprises 53 countries ranging from those in Western Europe to Russia and its surrounding countries. Kluge added that 33 countries in the region had reported a greater-than-10% increase in their 14-day case incidence rate.

“This high transmission is deeply worrying — particularly in the light of low vaccination uptake in priority populations in a number of countries,” Kluge said. 

“In the past 6 weeks, vaccination uptake in the region has slowed down, influenced by a lack of access to vaccines in some countries and a lack of vaccine acceptance in others. As of today, only 6% of people in lower and lower-middle-income countries in our region have completed a full vaccination series.”

Vaccination programs kicked off late last year in both Europe and the U.S. at varying speeds. While the U.K. and U.S. were quick to start vaccinating the elderly and health care workers, the EU’s drive was more sluggish as a result of late ordering, supply constraints and contentions over clinical data (mainly with the AstraZeneca shot) hindering the progress of some rollouts in the EU.

These teething problems have largely been ironed out, however, and now a large proportion of adults and young people in the U.S. and Europe are fully vaccinated.

To date, 69.2% of adults in the EU are now fully vaccinated, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (although the European Commission announced last Tuesday that it reached its goal of vaccinating 70% of the EU’s adult population).

In the U.K., 79.8% of all over-16s are fully vaccinated and in the U.S., 62% of the population over…