Health officials in Idaho want 80% herd immunity by September

Boise, Idaho — Set goals. That criterion that we are trying to reach when we embark on achieving herd immunity, starting with things like COVID-19.

The state has set fairly high goals for vaccination of Aida Juan.

At a vaccine deployment meeting with the Idaho Department of Health on Tuesday, the state announced that it hopes that 80% of people over the age of 65 will be fully vaccinated by June 1.

And they are already on their way.

Currently, over 70% of that age group has already taken at least one shot. And about 63 percent are already fully vaccinated.

What does that mean for the rest of us?

All Aida Juan over 16 years old are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting last week.

And as of Tuesday, the state says almost 39 percent of eligible people received at least one dose of the vaccine.

About 27 percent are already fully vaccinated.

However, the state wants us to be better and has set a goal of immunizing at least 80% of the population in the next five months.

“The target rate for September could be 80%. An important part is that we keep crossing our fingers when the Pfizer vaccine is approved. Children are part of it. It must be, and so is the official, “said Elke Shaw-Tulloch, administrator of the Idaho Department of Public Health. “If you’re not there, you can’t reach your 80% goal.”

“I think there are two reasons why we chose 80 percent. One is that we know from experts who are really familiar with the effects of variant viruses that we are not sure, but 80. Percentages are usually encoded as a good goal for achieving herd immunity, and of course that’s what we want to do, “said Dr. Christine Hahn, an Idaho epidemiologist. ..

“That is, the second area was that if older people actually tried to push to 80 and it was already 70%, it would be achievable, and then to the herd immunity of that population. I felt it was approaching, so along with the young population.

“By the time school begins, as Elke hinted at in September, we hope that the Pfizer vaccine will include at least some of our younger sets,” said Dr. Hahn. ..

80 percent. This is 1.4 million of the approximately 1.8 million inhabitants of Idaho.

As of Wednesday, more than 38,000 Idahoans over the age of 16 are considered fully vaccinated. About 21 percent.

This means that more than one million people will need to be fully vaccinated by September to reach the state’s goals and achieve herd immunity.

It’s hard to try to figure out how many Idahoans need to be shot in a day, as some of those 1 million Idahoans have already taken their first dose.

In addition, about a quarter of the population is under the age of 18.

Currently, there are no vaccines approved for people under the age of 16. Also, only Pfizer is allowed to be used by people between the ages of 16 and 17.

But Dr. Hahn says he hopes that young children will have access to the vaccine by the time school begins in the fall.

Most recently, Pfizer has filed an FDA review to vaccinate children between the ages of 12 and 15. But nothing is said about when and when it will happen.

Aside from that, if you can’t even get 50% of the population to get a flu shot, how are you supposed to get 80%?

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on national health issues, Idaho had an influenza vaccination rate of 45% during the 2019-2020 influenza season.

Not only that, young Aida Juan is not so excited to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Shaw-Tulloch said the state is beginning to change their approach, the message to young adults.

She said they plan to seek grants from the CDC to support outreach and education, and even provide incentives to vaccinate overtime vaccine clinics and Aida Juan.

In any case, we are watching how close we can reach that goal.