It's such an easy political win too. Risk of infection is grinding the US economy to a halt. Free Covid vaccine would mean life could get back to normal -- people could spend on more services and goods, companies could start hiring again, and the US could climb out of its recession.

Exactly. Even if we ignore the current suffering and death, and only focus on getting back to A normal that allows the economy to become reasonably productive, it's cheap as long as the vaccine is widely taken.

That's the catch; if it's widely taken.

I'll take a vaccine ASAP one exists and is passes proper testing, even though I know it may not confer immunity to me as an individual. Not everyone will. If they don't, that means that even though I did the right thing to protect myself and others ... the negligence of others could continue to cause needless suffering and death.