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President Biden advocates for school reopening, COVID-19 lighting at City Hall
President Joe Biden made his case for his $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief package on his first official trip outside Washington as president.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden takes the road again and visits Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facility near Kalamazoo, Michigan, Friday, where he will continue to argue the case for his nearly $ 2 trillion COVID-19 relief package as Democrats prepare to it by pressing. Congress.
The trip, Biden’s second visit to a politically important Midwest state this week, highlights Pfizer’s central hub where millions of the country’s first doses of COVID-19 vaccine roll off the production line in December. The president also met workers who manufacture the vaccine. The trip was originally planned for Thursday, but has been postponed.
According to President of Pfizer, the president, along with the government Gig. Gretchen Whitmer, CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla and Coronavirus Response Coordinator of the White House, Jeff Zients, on a tour of the ‘Freezer Farm’, a warehouse with 350 ultra-cold freezers each containing 360,000 doses of vaccines . Amy Rose.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said Friday that they want to update their Food and Drug Administration emergency permits, which will allow them to store their COVID-19 vaccine at normal freezer temperatures, which will reduce shipping restrictions. can facilitate and widen the vaccine. available. Currently, the vaccine must be stored between -112 ° F and -76 ° F and it is shipped in a special thermal container full of dry ice to keep it at the ultra cold temperature.
White House response team officials COVID-19 said Wednesday the U.S. is on track to have enough vaccine supplies available to 300 million Americans by the end of July, Biden’s comments on Tuesday during a CNN town hall .
The White House also announced on Wednesday that it has allocated $ 1.6 billion to expand tests for schools and the underprivileged population, increase the production of test supplies and increase funding to increase COVID-19 variants popping up across the country. to track.
Increasing vaccinations are an important part of Biden’s extensive COVID-19 assistance package, which includes money to reopen schools and businesses and distribute $ 1,400 checks to lower-income Americans. The president used his first trips outside the Washington area and his homeland, Delaware, to throw Americans on the recovery package, with a $ 1.9 billion price tag that Republicans presented to Congress.
First COVID-19 vaccines leave Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo
First COVID-19 vaccines leave Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo
Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press
“This is the time we need to spend. Now is the time to grow up,” Biden said at his CNN City Hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday during the CNN City Hall known as the American Recovery Plan.
The president and his aides rejected the backlash from Republicans, arguing that the government was fulfilling its promise of a two-party government through broad support among Americans.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 68% of Americans support the adoption of the law, including 37% of Republican voters, 68% of Independents and 97% of Democrats.
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More: ‘Five days a week’: Biden commits himself to reopening K-8 schools
‘It’s no coincidence that Biden decided to take his point of sale to Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that helped him win the White House and will be key for the Democrats in mid-2022, according to Bob Shrum.’ a longtime Democratic strategist who now runs the Dornsife Center. for the political future at the University of Southern California.
Shrum pointed to a Morning Consult poll showing Biden’s 62% approval with registered voters.
“It’s very high for a president in this polarized era, and I think they want to build on that,” he said. “They are not waiting. They have to act. ‘
The Morning Consult poll was cited by White House senior adviser Mike Donilon, who argued in a memo obtained by Axios that the GOP’s opposition to Biden’s rescue plan was detrimental to the party’s credibility.
“Given the character of the Republican Party at the moment and the fact that you have about 20% of Republicans who are seemingly unhappy with where the party is going, you are not going to do well in the meantime,” Shrum said. “The way Biden and Democrats can win the people over is to do the right thing now and beat the virus by organizing a national response.”
But Biden’s pitch – made while Congress is on holiday – runs counter-clockwise. The last round of stimulus relief passed by Congress in January will expire on March 14th. The current bill is moving through Congress under a special budget procedure that would allow Democrats to pass it without Republican support in the Senate. House Democrats have said they plan to pass the bill next week.
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USA TODAY
Meanwhile, the US continues to incite vaccinations, but the spread has been hampered by logistical obstacles, including supply shortages, cancellations in the appointment and this week’s severe winter weather which is expected to delay vaccine delivery in some states , according to the White House COVID-19 response. coordinator Jeff Zients.
Zients told state governors on Tuesday that the government would begin distributing 13.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine a week, an increase of 57% from the date Biden first entered service last month.
More: Exclusive: States get the biggest boost yet in the doses of vaccines, the White House tells governors
He attributes the increase in vaccine doses to states both to the planned production increases by vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, and to the steps taken by the administration, including an appeal to the Defense Production Act, a wartime authority. which can encourage the commercial production of the required supplies. this case more vaccines and tests.
According to the company, the Michigan plant in Michigan is the largest manufacturing site in Pfizer’s network and serves as the only U.S. finishing plant that manufactures the Pfizer vaccine.
According to Thursday, nearly 29 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered nationwide, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
Contributions: Maureen Groppe and Elizabeth Weisse