The COVID-19 vaccine has been out for months now. Since its announcement to the public on Dec. 11 for emergency use, it has slowly made its way out to healthcare workers and first respondents. However, it’s now nearly been two months since the announcement of the vaccine. Although two months isn’t particularly much time, due to the current situation the United States is in because of the pandemic, there cannot be time to spare.

According to the Los Angeles Times, starting from March 15 “...people ages 16 to 64 who are disabled or at high risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 will be eligible for vaccination.” In other words, after three months of being diagnosed as ready to use, the COVID-19 vaccine will only now start to be sent out to the public, with that being those of serious health constraints.

However, due to limited supplies and with medical workers, first responders, senior citizens, teachers and essential workers all being eligible to apply for the vaccine, I don’t see a realistic situation of it being massively distributed across the country for public use until at least the end of 2021.

The government has to invest more funds into developing the COVID-19 vaccine as well as doing more research about the virus in order to not fall behind other worldwide powers.

In China, where the population is nearly four times the size of that of the United States, and where the vaccine originated from, there were less than 100,000 cases across the country. In Australia, there were less than 30,000 COVID-19 cases. Both countries are currently not threatened in any way by COVID-19. On the other hand, the United States has a very different story than the rest of the world. With nearly 28 million cases, the United States is at the bottom of the standings in terms of how countries dealt with COVID-19.

Most countries around the world have not had to invest trillions upon trillions of dollars in order for research and vaccines related to COVID-19 because it was only an issue for them for a couple months. In the United States, it has been a year since the start of the pandemic, yet it seems as if we are going backwards as a country instead of progressing forwards.

“I think because the vaccine is so fragile and producing the vaccines isn’t the quickest process, we do need to find an alternative to these vaccines. Vaccines alone aren’t a guarantee of protection and there’s been mutations of the virus which may affect how effective it is,” said Victoria Choi, a junior at Troy High School.

Although the United States received backlash for its inefficient methods of dealing with COVID-19, some commended the government for its efforts.

“It is important to ensure both safety workers and elderly are all vaccinated before the healthier, younger population.” said Kyle Min, a junior at Los Alamitos High School.

<Daniel Kong / Sunny Hills High School 11th Grade>