'Making Good Progress': Doctors Believe Massachusetts Can Reach Herd Immunity In A Couple Months
BOSTON (CBS) - Every day in Massachusetts, tens of thousand of people get vaccinated against COVID-19.
So when do we reach that coveted end zone of herd immunity?
"We're making really good progress. Plus, the state is administering, depending a little bit on the day, somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 doses of vaccine. So getting us to 70, 80, 90 percent of the eligible population, we can get there in the next two months," said Dr. Paul Biddinger of Mass General Hospital.
But even though the state making steady progress, some doctors warn that if don't pick up the pace, it'll create an opening for the variants and we'll have setbacks.
"We're just about a quarter of the state being vaccinated. So we need to have more people vaccinated. We want three quarters or a little bit more in order to get what we call the herd immunity," said Dr. Mireya Wesslossky of UMass Memorial Medical Center.
And then there's the rest of the world. Massachusetts is not an island, and COVID-19 travels as easily as we do.
"We have to collaborate with other states and also with other nations," said Tufts Medical Center Dr. Gabriela Andujar Vazquez. "In order to get this virus under control, we all have to work together and vaccination is going to be key."
Some research indicated that 90% of the residents in Massachusetts have confidence in the vaccine. Now we need to get it to them.
