It was around this week last year that the vaccination drive against Covid-19 began in the US and soon in other places. It has been a year of vaccines, a year of debates over their authorization, eligibility, efficacy, and now for booster doses. There has been political opposition to vaccines in many places, even as majority of the developing and poor nations haven’t received enough doses. The vaccines raised high hopes of an end to the pandemic, but 2021 has been the year of accepting the reality that while a shot is the best protection science can offer, the virus remains unpredictable.

The performance of vaccines might have left some of their advocates somewhat underwhelmed. The assumption was that a shot would provide foolproof protection against infection for once and all. That has not been the case. Scientists cite data to show that the vaccines – developed in a record-breaking short period – have saved many lives that otherwise might have been lost. But the ‘breakthrough’ cases, catching infection despite inoculation, might have made many citizens reconsider their faith in the vaccines.

The emergence of new variants of the virus has also raised a question mark. While the Delta wracked havoc earlier, the vaccines at least helped against more severe forms of Covid-19 and reduce fatalities and hospitalizations. Yet, they might be less effective against the latest Omicron variant.

Moreover, it was not well known at the start that the vaccine’s effect would wear off after a while, requiring a booster dose. When authorities started proposing boosters, many might have wondered how long this series would go on.

On the first anniversary of the vaccine exercise, the statistics are sobering: the Covid-19 death toll of the US stands at around 800,000, up from 300,000 when the first short was administered. However, scientists like National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins believe majority of the deaths were among the unvaccinated.

The rampant spread of misinformation about vaccines has also been a factor here, as a sizeable portion of the population has chosen to avoid it, and hence making the exercise less effective at the social level.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/12/12/history-made-millions-saved-one-year-anniversary-covid-19-vaccine/6432754001/?gnt-cfr=1

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-science-health-francis-collins-57ab6ae016acec5ee5ca268cc682879c

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html