Elected President Biden on Friday unveiled what he put forward as a ‘daring’ plan to achieve his promised goal of 100 million coronavirus vaccinations by the end of his first 100 days in the White House.
Biden, targeting the delayed vaccination efforts by President Trump’s administration, said that “the vaccine explosion in the United States has so far been a sad failure.”
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The Trump administration aims to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of December, but according to new figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, so far only 10.6 million people have at least one of got the two shots needed.
BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA, UNITED STATES – 2020/12/18: Front-line health worker Zaira Hernandez is vaccinated with the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine by Amy Meek at IU Health Bloomington. (Photo by Jeremy Hogan / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)
Biden promised that his incoming government would spare no effort to get Americans vaccinated.
“Our plan is as clear-cut as it is bold,” Biden said. “Get more people vaccinated for free. Create more places to be vaccinated. Mobilize more medical teams to get the shots in people’s arms. Increase the supply and take it out the door as soon as possible.”
The President-elect’s speech – delivered in his hometown of Wilmington, Del. – came when new cases of the virus continued to increase in the country. Nearly 390,000 people in the US have died from COVID since the pandemic swept the country almost a year ago. More than 23.4 million people in the US have been infected with the virus since the first attack. And on Tuesday, more than 4,300 deaths nationwide were linked to the virus, a new one-day high.
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“We are staying in a very dark winter,” Biden warned. “Infection rates are rising by 34%. More people are being hospitalized for COVID than ever before. We are between three and four thousand deaths a day as we approach the bleak milestone of 400,000 deaths in America. That is staggering to say. the obvious. ‘
Elected President Joe Biden speaks at an event at The Queen Theater, Friday, January 15, 2021 in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo / Matt Slocum)
Biden listed a handful of steps to achieve his goal.
“We will work with states immediately to open up vaccinations to more priority groups,” Biden said.
And he argues that “the implementation was too rigid and confusing.” He said: “If you were to ask most people today, they would not be able to tell you exactly who is being vaccinated. What they do know is that there are tens of millions of doses of unused vaccine sitting in freezers across the country, while people who want and the vaccine should not get it. ‘
He promised to ‘solve the problem by encouraging states to allow more people to vaccinate outside health workers and to move through these groups as fast as they think we can. This includes anyone aged 65 or over, a population of over 80% of deaths to date. “
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Biden has also undertaken to establish thousands of community vaccination centers. “On my first day in office, I will instruct the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to set up the first of these centers,” he said. The president-elect said he would set up 100 vaccination centers in the office by the end of his first month, with many of them in school gyms, sports stadiums and community centers. ‘
“We are going to make sure that there are vaccination centers in communities that are hardest hit by the pandemic, also in black and Latino communities and rural communities,” he said.
Elected President Joe Biden receives his second dose of coronavirus vaccine at ChristianaCare Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., Monday, January 11, 2021. The vaccine is being administered by Chief Nurse Ric Cuming. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)
“We will provide resources to help states cover the cost of personnel … and protective equipment,” he said.
Biden said his COVID team would also “fully activate” pharmacies to deliver vaccinations.
Biden said he would “use the Defense Production Act to work with the private industry to accelerate materials needed to supply and administer the vaccine.”
The president-elect promised that his government “will make sure civil servants and local officials know how much stock they are going to get and when they can expect to get it so they can plan.”
He pointed to the reluctance of many in the black, Latino and Native American communities to trust the vaccine.
“Equity is central to our COVID response,” he said.