US President Joe Biden talks on March 10, 2021 about the production of the Covid-19 vaccine in the South Court Auditorium, next to the White House, in Washington, DC.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden has said he will announce the “next phase” of the US Covid-19 response during his first speech to Americans on Thursday.
“Tomorrow night I will address the American people for the first time and talk about what we have been through as a nation over the past year. But more importantly, I will talk about what comes next,” Biden said on Wednesday from the White House after a meeting with managers of Johnson & Johnson and Merck.
“I am going to launch the next phase of the Covid response and explain what we as a government are going to do and what we will ask of the American people,” he said. “There has been light at the end of this dark tunnel over the past year. We cannot watch now or accept that victory is inevitable. Together we will go through this pandemic and usher in a healthier, more hopeful future.”
The president’s speech will commemorate the one-year anniversary that was the first term of office that the pandemic attempted to curb.
The Biden government has worked to increase the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and get the majority of Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible. About 62.4 million of the 331 million Americans received at least one dose of Covid vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, 32.9 million were fully vaccinated, representing nearly 10% of the total U.S. population.
Earlier Wednesday, the Biden government announced plans to buy 100 million additional doses of J & J’s Covid-19 vaccine. The agreement will double the country’s supply of the J&J vaccine, as the company already had an agreement with the government to provide 100 million doses by the end of June. Merck helps make J & J’s Covid vaccine.
The administration also has 600 million doses with drug manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna combined, which is enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans, as the two vaccines require two shots given three to four weeks apart.
“I do this because we need maximum flexibility in this time of war,” Biden said Wednesday about plans to purchase more doses of J&J vaccine. “There is always a chance that we will face unexpected challenges, or there will be a new need for a vaccine effort … a lot can happen, a lot can change and we need to be prepared.”
Biden said if the US has a surplus of vaccines, the government will share it with the rest of the world.
“It’s not something that can be stopped by a fence, no matter how high you build a fence or wall,” he said. “So in the end we are not going to be safe until the world is safe. So we are going to take care of Americans first, but then we are going to try to help the rest of the world.”
The comments come weeks after Biden said the US would try to end cancer, the second leading cause of death in the US, once the pandemic is over.
One of Biden’s sons, Beau Biden, died at the age of 46 from an aggressive form of brain cancer.