COVID vaccine hesitancy puts Illinois, US behind on race to herd immunity - WLS-TV

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CHICAGO (WLS) -- Both Illinois and the United States as a whole is far short of its COVID vaccine herd immunity goal, which would see eight out of 10 people vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"A whole lotta kids are afraid of shots," said John Williams, who lives in Washington Heights. "You know how that goes."

Williams said he's vaccinated, and is now trying to convince his adult children to do the same.

In order to achieve herd immunity, 75 to 80% of the population has to be protected by vaccination or having had the illness, and the pandemic will end. But there appears to be a real possibility that threshold may never be reached.

COVID-19 vaccines administered in the U.S. has dipped below 2 million per day for the first time since early March. Gov. JB Pritzker said Illinois is now cutting back its vaccine orders, not because they aren't needed but because there is not as much demand.

"We've got quite a number of vaccinations that are available in the in the state that are still unused, and so we want to make sure that we're working through the inventor that we got," Pritzker explained. "We're going to ramp down the number of vaccination-vaccines, rather,--than we're getting for the state. And we, obviously, the federal government has made all of that still available of that, even if we were to say we want 10% or 20% less, those doses are still available to use in the following week."

In order to jump the herd immunity hurdle, many people, from grassroots outreach organizations to your own doctor, are working together to assuage the fears of the vaccine hesitant and help them get the shot. With enough immunity, the population will be able to get back to life as they remember it, and achieve some sense of normalcy.

Incentives from free museum passes and free targets at a gun range are offered by Illinois officials. Federal government agencies are trying to sweeten the deal with everything from donuts to drinks, hot dogs at Coney Island, and even a chance at free Super Bowl tickets.

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