And if protecting loved ones is the goal, many will be distressed to find out that vaccine distribution is not yet approved for the very young. At this point, doses are only recommended to be administered to those 18 and older.
That puts Belize, a country with a very young population, in an interesting dilemma. The vaccination of every residents 18 and older, would only put us at a 58% herd immunity. Here's how Dr. Beer broke down this dilemma.
Dr. Natalia Beer
"The AstraZeneca vaccines is recommended for persons 18 years and older and what does that represent from the total population 58%. So we are hoping that throughout the coming months we can have other options vaccines that can cover lower age group. I know Pfizer start from 16, so we have 2 cohorts there that we can look at, but the vaccines are being also being tried in other population to see if they can include younger population. Until then our target is 58%."
