Given the challenges of COVID-19, we are indeed living in turbulent times. From lockdowns and mask mandates to the impact on supply chains and economic growth, societies around the globe are dealing with the kind of crisis most of us have never known.
2022 is just a few days away, so we wanted to take a moment to look back at some of the things we’ve accomplished in 2021 to better our healthcare IT solutions for improving care for all.
Despite everyone’s hopes — and the efforts and sacrifices of vaccine makers, public health authorities, and the general public — 2021 is ending much as it began, with continued disruption and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The good news: The CDC reported that the 2020-2021 flu season saw much lower numbers of hospitalizations, mortality rates, and only one reported case of a pediatric flu death, despite high levels of testing and a record number of influenza vaccine doses applied. The obvious news: We need to continue these efforts into the next year and hope to see even lower numbers going forward.
In an article in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Rino Rappuoli describes vaccines as “a safety belt and life insurance for humankind.” Although there have been skeptics since the first smallpox vaccine in the early 18th century, it’s hard to deny the impact that vaccinations have had in the past and will continue to make around the world.
Americans now have widespread access to two vaccines that offer protection against COVID-19, with a third — the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine approved by the FDA on February 27 — expected to reach providers in the coming weeks.
As soon as the scale and seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic became clear in early 2020, talk began to focus on the challenges of developing vaccines. The past year has seen an unprecedented effort to develop and deploy safe and effective vaccines to control a virus that has now claimed 2.5 million lives worldwide — and more than 500,000 in the U.S. alone.