Covid-19 vaccination rate: after 6 1/2 months Brazil overtakes the U.S.

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After months dragging its feet in the vaccination campaign, Brazil has finally picked up its pace and managed to surpass the United States in number of daily administrations.

Comparing the average doses administered on the exact days in which Brazil and the United States completed 6 1/2 months of vaccination, the difference stands at 82%.

On Saturday, July 31, 1.52 million Brazilians were vaccinated against the disease, according to a survey on rolling averages by Our World in Data website, linked to Oxford University in the UK. On June 28, the average number of shots in the USA stood at 833,990, according to the same platform.

Brazil exceeded the American vaccination rate for the first time on June 20, about 5 months after the campaign started in the country. Since then, the Brazilian average of daily shots has remained higher than the American rate. For the first time Brazil managed to exceed the 1 million daily dose average, every day in July.

The drop in the immunization rate in the U.S. is largely due to anti-vaccine groups, who do not want to be immunized. This is leading to a new wave of cases in the country, associated with the spread of the more contagious Delta variant found in India.

The U.S. government is running several campaigns to encourage vaccination, including the help of digital influencers. In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that anyone attending a vaccination post to receive their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine will be rewarded with US$100.

The opposite was true in Brazil. The campaign was slow to advance due to a shortage of doses. Cities were often forced to suspend the campaign because demand for the vaccine exceeded supply. This problem seems to be over or, at least, minimized.

There are still isolated suspensions, but new doses are promptly shipped to states. Whether this trend will continue remains to be seen; but all indications suggest it will.

On the other hand, Brazilian vaccination rates still leave much to be desired when compared to the American rate. On its 195th vaccination day, the United States had 45.98% of its population fully immunized, twice that of Brazil, which had only 19.6% in the same period.