Key Takeaways

• The approval of COVID-19 vaccinations and the announcement of roll-outs is very promising.
• Having enough people agree to immunization is the critical next step in the global recovery from this pandemic.
• Some might be "All shook up" to realize some populist ways to convince skeptical citizens to take these vaccinations.

It's been encouraging to learn about the approval of vaccines and how they are being rolled out. It made me think of Elvis Presley!

Read on to understand why...

Until the vaccine is rolled out on a large enough scale to create Herd immunity, there are many hurdles that we have to overcome. Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.

The percentage of people who need to have antibodies to achieve Herd immunity against a particular disease varies (and it's not yet known what percentage of the population will need to be vaccinated for COVID-19). Herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a population to be vaccinated. For polio, the threshold is about 80%.

Currently, less than 65% of people polled have indicated that they would agree to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Enter Elvis: In the 1950s, summer outbreaks in the USA caused tens of thousands of Polio cases, leaving hundreds paralyzed or dead. `Second only to the atomic bomb,' polio was `the thing that Americans feared the most.'

There was great distrust among Americans to take the Polio vaccination and a lot of misinformation. Elvis Presley, after a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, received a polio vaccine on air. This has been often credited as the turning point in the triumph over Polio.

This is the second last post for this year, so stay tuned, and until next week, wait for it: "Elvis has left the building"...