An interesting article and all, but given that the UK and the US have pretty similar rates of vaccination at this point (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-glo...), for example much closer than either one is to France, Japan, Russia, or China (even though Russia and China have had domestically developed vaccines for longer), I'm not sure this is really a huge disparity that needs explaining.
I would be skeptical about any numbers from either China or Russia. In Europe, it seems to be mostly about availability. The US and UK, for all their missteps, seem to have bought a ton of the stuff, while the EU appears to have tripped over its own feet.
The real US/UK difference, if any, will show up over the coming weeks, as eligibility and availability stop being the limiting factor. If the polls predict correctly, the US will slow down a lot, while the UK sails past herd immunity.
Polls are often misleading, since what people say they will do and what they actually do are different -- especially when it can be seen as social posturing. Tiny changes in phrasing can be revealing.
From the empirical side of that too, for all the media attention anti-vaxers seem to get, I’ve yet to actually meet one. The scary part isn’t so much that they’re common, more so that there’s just enough of them to cause a problem. So if there is a big difference between UK and the US, it won’t show up until we get into the long tail of vaccinations.
I read the article as agreeing with the first half of what you say (similar rates so far), but is really looking to the next phase and highlighting a potential issue around different rates of vaccine hesitancy.
I hope you're right and there is no big disparity. The polling numbers referenced in the article suggest that there might though, and that might hinder getting to full herd immunity (or whatever the ideal rate of immunisation is).
