I've casually speculated that I personally wouldn't receive a coronavirus vaccine until late next year, but now we have a little more than speculation to go on.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield appeared in front of Senate Health and Human Services Subcommittee this morning where he said a vaccine will only be available for essential personnel such as health care workers when it's approved.
Most people will not receive a vaccine until around this time a year from now.
The U.S. should have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for Americans to return to “regular life” by the third quarter of next year, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. [...]
“If you’re asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we’re probably looking at third ... late second quarter, third quarter 2021,” he told the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
I think this will probably hold true even if former Vice President Joe Biden is elected to replace Trump.
It will take time and whole new infrastructure to safely and widely distribute hundreds of millions of doses of a vaccine. There's been some speculation that even producing the number of vials we'll need to hold that many doses will be difficult and time consuming.
I've already adapted to wearing a mask whenever I leave the house and I suppose we'll be doing that for a long time to come. But that is a minor inconvenience. Having no vaccine for another year is really bad news for businesses and particularly restaurants and movie theaters or any other service that depended on large numbers of people sitting in small spaces. Restaurants will be especially vulnerable to collapse during the winter when outdoor seating is not an option.
The idea that we can limp along for another year without another large stimulus bill does not seem plausible.