(CNN) It's been over a month now since the first Covid-19 vaccines were distributed in the United States, and we still haven't reached the initial goal set out for 20 million Americans to be vaccinated -- one initially set for the end of 2020. That has come and gone, and the promised windfall of doses being released from the federal reserve turned out to be a false hope, as the reserve had already been exhausted.
The federal government led by President Donald Trump has over-promised and under-delivered. As more and more Americans want the vaccine, we're getting more shots into arms, but not enough.
The number of Americans vaccinated with at least one dose as of Friday stands at 10.6 million, according to the CDC. The number of total doses administered stands at 12.3 million. That's an increase of more than 5 million from last Friday, which equals to a little less than 1 million doses administered per day. Just a week ago, we averaged giving out about 500,000 vaccines on a given weekday.
This was the first week in which we had at least one day of 1 million vaccines delivered on a given day and multiple reported days of at least 800,000 doses administered per day, though most days fell short of the incoming Biden's administration promise of a million doses per day.
Part of the rising vaccination rates has to do with the fact that more people who received a first dose are now eligible for a second. Part has at least partially to do with states loosening their restrictions on who can get the vaccine.
Still, even as the number of vaccinations rise, there are many doses that have yet to be used. The ratio of vaccines administered to those distributed to the states stands at 39%. That's better than it's ever been, but still is an indication that we're struggling to get the vaccines we do have into people.
It would be tempting to think that this is a problem of Democratic or Republican governance. To the degree that the President is a Republican, it is.
It's not as simple as that, however.
There is no clear relationship between the partisanship of a state's governor and the number of vaccines distributed.
Four of the top 10 states (and District of Columbia) for vaccinations per 100,000 have Democratic heads, while four of the worst 10 states for vaccinations per 100,000 have Democratic governors.
Perhaps the best example of this is to look at New York and Florida. Both have similarly sized populations, but one with a Democratic and one with a Republican governor. They're ranked right near each other for the number of vaccines administered and both have a similar ratio of vaccines administered vs. distributed to each state.
Indeed, it seems that one factor into how many people are getting a vaccine is the size of the population of each state. The states (and the District of Columbia) with the 10 smallest populations have vaccinated about 5,000 per 100,000 on average, while the states with the 10 largest populations have vaccinated about 3,300 per 100,000.
This basic relationship of less populated states doing better at administering the vaccine holds even when controlling for the number of doses given to each state per 100,000.
While it's difficult to untangle why less populated states would be better, it could just be as simple as less populated states being able to coordinate better.
Fortunately, the problem so far hasn't seemed to be an unwillingness for folks to get vaccinated.
The fact is that more and more Americans say they want to get the vaccine.
In a Gallup poll this week, 65% said they'd get the Covid-19 vaccine if it was available to them at no cost. That's the highest percentage who said that in a Gallup poll since July.
Likewise, an Axios/Ipsos poll finds that 60% say it's at least somewhat likely they'll get the vaccine as soon as it's available. That's the highest percentage that poll has ever recorded on this question. The percentage (37%) who say they're very likely to get it is also its highest ever in the poll.
This makes sense because one of Americans' biggest reasons for not getting the vaccine was that they wanted to see if it was safe and effective. Given that the vaccines have proven to be exactly that through trials and one month of distribution in America, we would have expected it to rise.
That perhaps leaves us with the biggest remaining question on the Covid-19 vaccines in America. When will the supply and distribution meet the demand?
Hopefully, the Biden administration doesn't drop the ball like the Trump administration clearly has.