this is fucked. we're now way off the peak of 3.3 million daily doses

45% of the population has been vaccinated now, which is already producing dramatic improvements in new case rates and has almost certainly prevented a fourth wave from breaking out in the U.S.

if we stop now we're not going to succeed in full suppression of the virus

instead, it will probably become endemic (possibly seasonal) in pockets of the country where vaccination rates are low. this will make the U.S. into a minefield of green and red zones.

I don't have a good explanation here. I can only assume that vaccine hesitancy is a downstream result of institutions having discredited themselves.

It might also be the result of disinformation campaigns. Or maybe it's homegrown insanity. I don't know but it sucks.

and if you're wondering where the red zones are going to be, yes, it tracks with party/ideology

interestingly, this doesn't track with the statements and actions of the 45th president. For all his imbecilic mistakes and outright malfeasance, he was a strong supporter of Operation Warp Speed, and has himself been publicly vaccinated.

so the ideological tendency that produces vaccine hesitancy is actually an even stronger motivator than loyalty to the dipshit that they all voted for

my take on it is that the level of distrust for public and private institutions (remember: the vaccines were produced by private pharma companies, not a government agency) is so high that they choose personal health risk in preference to cooperation.

it's not rational but it reflects an emotional state very clearly: feeling like the whole world is out to get you and nothing can be relied upon except for yourself and your ideological compatriots.

extreme antisocial paranoia. a form of psychosis, actually.

immersion in a media ecosystem that reinforces this paranoia and amplifies it with an unending stream of petty grievances has got to seriously exacerbate the problem though

this is failed state stuff. it's unevenly distributed, but America is a partially failed state.