The COVID-19 vaccine is now available to virtually everyone who wants it. To date, just 36% of the American public is fully vaccinated. Even with new variants of the disease on the rise, recent polling suggests that up to one quarter of society may choose not to be vaccinated.
COVID continues to be a security threat to the country. People are dying, people are out of work and kids are not getting educated. The only way to end that threat is to become a nation vaccinated. To reach herd immunity, up to 85% of Americans must be vaccinated. The only way to return to normal is to ensure every one of us is vaccinated.
Science has proven that COVID vaccinations are safe and they save lives. To date, more than 270 million vaccinations have been administered in the U.S. While more than 582,000 unvaccinated Americans have died from COVID-19, not a single person has died of COVID after being vaccinated.
To serve those communities, including reaching those who are vaccine hesitant and those who live in hard-to-reach areas, America has begun calling on Veterans. Veterans may be the key to herd immunity. That’s because according to the Pew Research Center, Americans trust the military and Veteran communities more than politicians, CEOs, and even scientists.
That’s why disaster relief nonprofit and six other Veteran organizations launched the Veterans Coalition for Vaccination. They are calling on all Veterans to first get vaccinated themselves, then to help end vaccine hesitancy, and finally to help get the vaccine into hard-to-reach arms. Together, they have set up vaccination sites in more than 95 areas across the country. The goals of this Veteran-led vaccination campaign are 1) to build confidence in the science of the vaccines, 2) to ensure all Veterans have access to the vaccine, and 3) to use Veterans to help vaccinate all Americans. Article courtesy of VA.