The Federal Emergency Management Agency is asking the Pentagon to help with President Joe Biden’s plan to eliminate COVID-19 vaccinations across the country in the next three months, several reports said Thursday.
The Department of Defense is looking into it, reports CNN.
“The department is evaluating the request and what types of support it can provide. Given the importance of the request, it will be urgently but carefully reviewed to determine which DOD assets can be safely made available to support the effort,” he said. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
‘As secretary [of Defense Lloyd] Austin said, “DOD is committed to doing as much as possible to help the entire government’s efforts against COVID-19,” he added.
The statement did not say how many troops could be involved, but an unnamed official told Reuters it could number in the thousands.
According to The Hill, possible solutions could vaccinate the sending of up to 10,000 active conscripts and national army to mega-hubs.
Biden said Monday he aims to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day in the coming weeks.
“It’s going to be a logistical challenge that surpasses anything we’ve ever tried in this country, but I think we can do it,” Biden told a news conference.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the goal is aspirational, and Andy Slavitt, White House adviser COVID-19, said the next day that it would take “months” before anyone who wanted a vaccine have, one can get, The Hill reports.
In remarks Tuesday to CNN, Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain noted a number of obstacles the government faces in achieving its vaccination goals.
“It’s not just vaccines,” he said, the news agency said. ‘In some states … the problem is a lack of people to give shots. We are working to increase capacity. In some states there are not enough places. We have announced the establishment of federal vaccination centers. So we need more vaccinations, we need more vaccinations, we need more places to give vaccinations. We are working on all three of these things. ‘
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