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Marshalling Forces for Declaration of War on Vaccinations

Generally, our response has been too tepid to date.

On Thursday President Biden had his first national prime time television address. In it he had several messages, summarized in this Politico article: "'We all lost something': Biden honors Covid victims, accelerates vaccine timeline."

The theme is help is on the way. What I see is a marshalling of forces to take advantage of the vaccine supply that is finally ramping up. While vaccines have been the limitation to date, it won't be long before the issue will not be vaccines, but vaccinators. Thus the plan to have the military and other quasi-medical workers assist with vaccinations. I saw or heard an item that even veterinarians (you could get your distemper shot at the same time!) could help. 

The other thing that is helpful, I think, is laying out a date for people to look forward to — Independence Day as a date when small family BBQs will be possible with the people/adults attending being vaccinated. 

Once the vaccines, as well as the locations and staffing to provide them, are in place, the last challenge will be getting people to get to the vaccination sites once the pressures on the system today are relieved. I'm betting that by the end of June there will be this push to get those not vaccinated to a vaccination site. 

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.