As it took 3 weeks to get the single dose of vaccine to 5.1% of Montanans, how long until 75% of state citizens have access to the inoculant? #mtpol

The NYT indicates that Montana had 119,500 doses of vaccine distributed in state with 66,348 or 56% of shots given to people https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

The Biden Administration says that their goal is to get 100M shots in 100 days to Americans. With 331M Americans that's like 30% of America will have a vaccine shot by May 1st.

In Montana 30% represents 323,280 people that might receive a dose of inoculant by May 1st.

Dr Fauci said that herd immunity starts at 70% to 85% of the population being inoculated.

To reach the 70% minimum of herd another 431K Montanans would need to receive the inoculant after the initial May 1st timeline.

Yet this news from yesterday indicates that Montana may not want to reach herd immunity as only 50% the state is planning for broad uptake. https://twitter.com/NBCMontana/status/1352730366767894528?s=20

No one is saying a best guess to herd immunity but it doesn't look very fast, maybe late summer, fall or winter. Heck, damn it, maybe even next year before we can say anything like normal.

The new variants spreading across the planet that are highly more contagious, killing more people, yet science seems unsure if the vaccine will work without a booster poses new questions for Montanans going forward.

A reasonable question, posed by another in this thread, is why can't the most powerful and richest nation on the planet, with all our technology and healthcare, offer vaccine to all our people by May 1st, w tools like the National Defense Authorization Act laws in the book #mtsen

Montana currently receives "13,500 vaccine doses per week" https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/gianforte-orders-guard-home-gives-vaccination-update

"On that particular day, the health department had scheduled 440 Flathead County residents to be vaccinated. One by one, they arrived at the fairgrounds for their appointments and were ushered through a seamless three-step process." https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/jan/22/vaccine-recipients-see-shot-path-back-normal/