With demand for coronavirus vaccines declining in parts of the country, the Biden administration announced a change in strategy this week, adopting a more targeted approach for reaching America’s not-yet-vaccinated population.
Despite the nation’s relatively smooth and speedy rollout, there’s still a lot of work to do—and a fair amount of doubt, per the week’s reports on herd immunity, that it’ll get done. As of May 5, 148.6 million Americans, or 44.7% of the total population, had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, up from 142.7 million a week ago, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That relatively small change is dwarfed by the increase in the number of fully vaccinated individuals in the past week: 107.3 million Americans, which includes 70.1% of seniors, 41.3% of adults, and 32.3% of the total population have been fully vaccinated, up from 98 million last week.