Those were President Joe Biden's comments Thursday in the White House Rose Garden as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance that allows fully vaccinated people, for the most part, to go maskless.
While the news is welcome, it also raises some tough questions, including how to ascertain who is fully vaccinated and who is not. Remember, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that prevents schools and most businesses — with the exception of many health care providers — from requiring people to show proof of vaccination or proof that they had COVID-19.
People aren't considered "fully vaccinated" until two weeks after their last COVID-19 shots, whether it was after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
According to a Florida Department of Health report released Thursday, 7,327,823 people in the state had completed their required vaccine doses. Another 2,108,764 had been vaccinated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine but had not gotten their required second doses.
A look at some of the state's largest counties showed that vaccination completion rates were less than 50 percent. In Miami Dade County, 1,005,374 people had completed their vaccinations, which is about 46.4 percent of the adult population based on 2019 census data.
In Palm Beach County, 539,666 people had completed their vaccine doses, which is about 44.5 percent of the adult population. In neighboring Broward County, 676,396 people had completed vaccine doses, or about 43.8 percent of the adult population. And in three other urban counties — Orange, Hillsborough and Duval — the percentages of adults who had completed vaccine doses was 41.8 percent, 37.8 percent and 37.5 percent, respectively.
Statewide, 42.5 percent of the adult population had completed vaccine doses.
According to the most recent CDC data, Florida ranks 33rd among the 50 states and the District of Columbia when it comes to the percentage of its overall population that is fully vaccinated.
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This article appears in May 13-19, 2021.