WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – The coronavirus action plan that President Joe Biden is unveiling on Thursday aims to bring new urgency to the country’s vaccination campaign, along with another round of economic relief for cornered Americans.
Biden’s plan comes at a time when a divided nation remains caught in the grip of the most dangerous wave in the pandemic. So far, more than 385,000 have died in the United States. And government figures released on Thursday reported a jump in weekly unemployment claims to 965,000, a sign that rising infections are forcing companies to cut and lay off workers.
Biden hopes that his multifaceted strategy, to be detailed in a speech on Thursday night, will put the country on the road to recovery at the end of its first 100 days. “It will be difficult,” said Biden on Monday after receiving his second vaccine. “It will not be easy. But we can do that. “
A more disciplined focus on vaccination is the new and widely anticipated game-changing element, but that is far from the whole story. Biden is asking Americans to overcome their sense of pandemic fatigue and to commit to wearing masks, practicing social detachment and avoiding internal meetings, especially larger ones. That is still the surest way to stop the wave of COVID-19, with more than 4,400 deaths recorded on Tuesday alone.
He must also ask Congress for another round of economic relief. Biden has already tweeted his support for a $ 2,000 stimulus check, saying the previous $ 600 check “was not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table.”
Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the Biden COVID-19 package would be the first order of business this year. Democrats hope it will also include more aid for unemployed workers, as well as money for state efforts to contain the pandemic and maintain basic services.
But Biden’s biggest challenge is “to win the hearts and minds of the American people to follow his example,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an expert in public health and emergency medicine.
With the support of Congress and the expertise of private and governmental scientists, the Trump administration has delivered two highly effective vaccines and others are on the way. However, a month after the first vaccines were applied, the country’s vaccination campaign started off slowly with about 10.3 million people receiving the first of two injections, although more than 29 million doses have been administered.
Biden intends to accelerate this by delivering more vaccines and working closely with states and local communities to put vaccines in the arms of more people. The Trump administration provided the vaccine to states and set guidelines for who should have priority for vaccination, but largely left it up to state and local authorities to organize their vaccination campaigns.
“This will involve coordination at all levels, as well as resources,” said Dr. Nadine Gracia, executive vice president of the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health. “There is a commitment that the (next) administration has articulated to meet the needs of the communities.”
Biden set a goal to manage 100 million kicks in his first 100 days. The rate of vaccination is approaching 1 million vaccines per day, but 1.8 million per day would be needed to achieve widespread or “herd” immunity by the summer, according to a recent estimate by the American Hospital Association. Wen says the pace is expected to be even higher – close to 3 million a day.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that the coronavirus would disappear on its own. At first, he said it would disappear in the warmer weather, and later he said after the election. But Biden sees the pandemic as an existential threat. “This is my # 1 concern, keeping the virus under control,” he said last week.
At the height of power, Trump’s leadership during the pandemic has been erratic. He supported “Operation Warp Speed” to rapidly develop vaccines and treatments, but he also fought with leading government scientists, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and his own nominees the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden promised to take the lead in science and appointed Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as his primary medical advisor. He called on businessman Jeff Zients, who has a reputation for success in complex missions, to coordinate the government’s response to the coronavirus. He also chose Yale’s medical professor, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, to lead an effort to ensure equality and justice for racial and ethnic minorities in access to vaccines and treatments.
But he will need more than top talent, experts say. It is not yet clear how the new government will address the issue of vaccine hesitation, the doubts and suspicions that prevent many people from getting the vaccine. Research shows that it is a problem particularly among black Americans. “It is important to recognize the reasons why it exists and work to gain trust and develop vaccine safety in communities,” said Gracia.
Next Wednesday, when Biden will take office as president, it marks the one-year anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States..
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AP writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.