President-elect Joe Biden speaks in Wilmington, Delaware, on January 14th.
Photographer: Alex Wong / Getty Images
Photographer: Alex Wong / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden proposed revising eligibility rules for coronavirus vaccines and opening more sites for their distribution, but his plan to significantly increase U.S. inoculations largely preserves bones. of the Trump administration system.
Prior to the statements in Wilmington, Delaware, the Biden office published the changes it would make to increase vaccination rates. His promises are vague on time, reinforcing Biden’s earlier warnings that there will be no quick fix to the virus’s spread in the US.
“We did not go into all this during the night. And we won’t leave it overnight either, “said Biden. “We’re staying in a very dark winter.”
Biden and his aides have increasingly criticized the Trump administration’s launch of vaccines, which has been well below the inoculation targets. But the president-elect’s plan amounts to a review of Trump’s effort, not a rewrite.
“The deployment of vaccines in the United States it has been an unfortunate failure so far, “he said. Five changes, he said, will help the United States reach its 100 million dose target in its first 100 days in office. Biden said he would ask people to he would “hide” for 100 days after his investiture (calling it a “patriotic act”) and make face masks a requirement for federal property and interstate travel.
“You have my word: we will manage the hell out of this operation,” he said.
Biden asks Americans to be chewed for 100 days, criticizing the group of people
As president, Biden will encourage states to abandon a complex set of priority groups used to choose vaccines and instead focus on targeting key frontline workers and anyone 65 or older, according to an announcement Friday from his transition office. He plans to set up community vaccination centers and mobile clinics and “get started” in an effort to fire up pharmacies.
The implementation of priority groups was driven by science, but “it has been too rigid and confusing,” Biden said. “There are tens of millions of unused vaccine doses sitting in freezers across the country,” while people who want to vaccinate them can’t get them, he said. However, part of the delay is due to bottlenecks statewide.
He said he would instruct the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin establishing community vaccination sites on his first day in office, in places such as gyms, sports stadiums and community centers. “Mobile clinics moving from community to community” will work with local health professionals to get vaccinated in “hard-to-reach” communities, he said. Bechara Choucair, Biden’s vaccine coordinator, said 100 vaccination sites will be established by the end of February.
Pharmacy plans
The Biden administration will also work more closely with pharmacies to administer vaccines, although it was unclear how it would improve the partnerships they have already established with the government. Nor is it clear that they will receive doses quickly, with states demanding even more.
Biden also said he would use the Defense Production Act to boost the manufacture of vaccines and the supplies needed to administer them, such as vials and needles. The ad included few details.
“I’ve already asked the team and we’ve identified the vendors who are ready to work with our teams,” he said.
His fourth change, he said, is a previously announced plan to release more first doses of vaccines and keep fewer in reserve for second doses. The Trump administration announced it will make that change this week. Biden said his administration would not change the recommended dosing schedules that require people to receive a booster shot three or four weeks after the first dose.
His fifth change, he said, will be greater transparency for the vaccine program, including periodic updates on progress toward population vaccination.
Biden’s team on Friday appointed former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler as the scientific head of what he calls his Covid response. They will withdraw the name from Operation Warp Speed that President Donald Trump used for the vaccination effort. Kessler will replace Moncef Slaoui, who served as chief scientist of the initiative, and Kessler will focus on vaccine administration.
Biden is preparing to be sworn in next week under heavy security following the deadly January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and in the context of a furious pandemic that is the biggest crisis of his nascent presidency. This week, the United States set records for daily coronavirus deaths (Thursday alone, there were 3,899), while new cases and current hospitalizations hover around record levels.
Relief package
The president-elect unveiled his pandemic relief plan a day earlier, proposing a $ 1.9 trillion package that would face obstacles in Congress. Friday also detailed the vaccination plan, some of which depend on the passage of a new bill. For example, it pledged to hire 100,000 public health workers to help with vaccination and contact tracking.
Biden vaccination for front-line workers includes teachers and grocery store employees, as well as health workers.
The Trump administration has tried to soften a rocket launch. Since coronavirus vaccines were introduced in the U.S. in mid-December, 11.9 million doses have been administered, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker. This represents only 39% of the shots distributed.
The throw runs against the clock. The United States has had more than 23 million confirmed cases and regularly records 250,000 new cases every day. About 389,000 Americans have died, with the United States at the rate of 400,000 dead by the inauguration of Biden.
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