Dear B4SA and business colleagues,
With the vaccine supply constraints out of the way, the reason we are not yet vaccinating at a rate of 300,000+ per day is simple: a lack of demand. With the early adopters in each age group having shown up to receive their vaccinations, we now urgently need to drive those who are hesitating, adopting a “wait and see” approach, or who have very real barriers to getting their jabs.
A recent presentation by David Harrison, CEO of the DG Murray Trust, who is working with the NDoH on maintaining demand for the vaccinations, indicated that to save one life, you must vaccinate 400 people over 60, or 40,000 people in the 30-45 years old age band – which confirms the age-related rollout strategy, but which also raises some alarms.
In the 60+ cohort, only 2.94 million of a possible 5.43 million people have received a vaccine – a little over 54%. In the 50-59 years group only about 23.7% have received a vaccine. We need to urgently improve these figures in order to protect those in our society who are most vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19, even as we support the NDoH’s thinking around opening vaccination to all groups above 18 years sooner rather than later.
Read more: B4SA weekly update 17 Aug 21