Question: I got my first vaccination!  Now I want to know how many people around me are vaccinated.  How can I find out without directly asking everyone?

Answer: Individual-level vaccination data is protected information, so there’s no public database or the like.  But, CDC does offer county-level data on vaccination rates that you could use to make some educated guesses.  Go to CDC’s COVID Data Tracker, click on “county tracker” and you’re off!  (Figure 1)
I was interested in vaccination coverage in my county, Prince George’s, MD, and here’s what I learned, as of 7 April: a) community transmission is high; b) nearly 20% of people ages 18+ are fully vaccinated; and c) nearly 50% of people ages 65+ are fully vaccinated.  I was curious how this compared with our neighboring county Montgomery County, which is demographically quite different from Prince George’s (e.g. more wealthy and predominantly white).  For Montgomery County: a) community transmission is substantial; b) nearly 24% of people ages 18+ are fully vaccinated; and c) nearly 68% of people ages 65+ are fully vaccinated.  To summarize– as compared with Prince George’s County, Montgomery County has less COVID burden and a higher proportion of its residents fully vaccinated.  I’m hopeful that as vaccinations become more widely accessible, these inequities will decrease and– with concentrated effort– ultimately disappear.    

Figure 1. Percentage of people ages 18+ fully vaccinated by county, 7 April (from CDC)