How vaccine success and fourth surge are connected. David Williams in the Boston Globe

It’s counterintuitive: a fourth covid-19 wave is evident even as vaccine rollout accelerates. Conventional wisdom blames it on more contagious variants, pandemic fatigue, and states reopening too fast. There’s truth to all of that, but it overlooks the role that vaccination itself plays.David Williams shared his thinking with the Boston Globe (CDC Director Walesnsky stresses ‘hope,’ not ‘doom,’ after touring Hynes Convention Center. Vaccinations are accelerating even as COVID-19 cases also rise.)

“As spring comes, people in their 20s are relaxing their behavior and going out to restaurants with their friends,” said David Williams, president of Health Business Group, a Boston management consulting firm. “They don’t have to feel as guilty about infecting them if Ma and Grandma have already been vaccinated.”

Now that the old are vaccinated, we need to make sure young adult vaccination is quickly ramped up. There should be plenty of vaccine available shortly to do so.

“This is the time when we’re going from scarcity to surplus,” said Williams of the Health Business Group. “People who are eligible are now getting appointments, even if they have to work a bit, and a lot more people are now eligible. It still feels tight. But in the next two to three weeks, instead of waking up at 1 in the morning to book an appointment, you should be able to do at 2 in the afternoon.”