foreign affairs

The Dangers of Vaccine Disillusionment
A Viable Immunization Is Good News, but Realities Won’t Match Expectations for Many Months
By Josh Michaud and Jen Kates
December 2, 2020
Jess Hurd /REPORT DIGITAL-REA / R​edux




November brought some of the best news of the COVID-19 pandemic: strong evidence that novel coronavirus vaccines currently under development will work. That was never a forgone conclusion. But it is now almost certain that several different effective coronavirus vaccines will become available within the next few months.

Developing a vaccine is just the first step in a long journey toward ending the pandemic, however. Even more daunting tasks await policymakers and health workers after pharmaceutical companies ship the first doses out the door. To eliminate the risk of future outbreaks, as much as 70 percent of the world’s population will need to be immune to the coronavirus—through vaccination or infection and recovery. Given that only an estimated ten percent of the world’s population has had COVID-19 to date (with most infections