President-elect Joe Biden called for a vast expansion of federal aid to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office, an ambitious goal defined as a new and more communicable strain of Covid-19 that is expected to sweep the country.
Seeking to mount the most complex and logistically challenging vaccination campaign in the history of the United States, the Biden administration will have to face the vaccine’s hesitation, an exhausted health workforce, the lack of clear information on vaccine distribution and demand that far exceeds the offer.
“Vaccinate more people for free,” said Biden, listing his goals, in comments from Wilmington, Delaware. “Create more places for them to be vaccinated. Mobilize more medical teams to get vaccines in people’s arms. Increase the offer and take it outside as soon as possible.
“This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country – but you have my word, we will manage the hell out of this operation.”
Donald Trump will leave Biden with a complex and multifaceted crisis caused by the coronavirus and aggravated by the current government. In almost all cases, the Trump administration has sought to leave Covid-19’s response to the states, moving away from struggles for protective equipment, supplies, testing and now confusion over vaccine supplies.
Biden called the effort so far a “total failure”.
Achieving its goal of vaccinating 100 million people in the first 100 days would double the pace set by the Trump administration, which promised to vaccinate 20 million by the end of 2020. So far, only 12 million have received vaccines.
Even with the launch of vaccines, many more Americans are expected to succumb to Covid-19, in part because a more transmissible variant called B117 is expected to outpace the dominant strains in the U.S. in about eight weeks, further depleting health resources.
“Things are going to get worse before it gets better,” said Biden, adding, “The policy changes we’re making will take time to appear in Covid’s statistics.”
It often takes weeks for infected individuals to be diagnosed, hospitalized or die.
Biden’s new chief of staff, Ron Klain, said he expects Covid to claim 500,000 lives of Americans by the end of February, because “we haven’t fully funded Covid’s response”. The virus has already killed more than 390,000 Americans and left 25.7 million unemployed, while the economy recedes amid the increase in cases.
Biden outlined a more ambitious and expensive plan to take control of the coronavirus than any other undertaken by the Trump administration. A left-leaning analyst at the Center for American Progress called this “a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s self-defense approach.”
This is a good summary of the Biden vaccine plan
And it’s smart
We need more simplicity in our approach, wider availability, equity achieved through focused delivery, better communication, more offer.
Oh, and a federal government that helps states https://t.co/MmQX98iquh
– Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) January 15, 2021
Biden pledged to establish 100 federally funded vaccination sites in places such as school gymnasiums and sports stadiums; “Equip” the centers with “thousands” of workers; and establish community vaccination centers in hard-to-reach and affected areas.
“We are committed to ensuring that communities of color, rural neighborhoods and people living with disabilities and the elderly are not left behind in our vaccination plans,” said Biden. He also called Covid-19’s disproportionate impacts on minorities and marginalized Americans “unacceptable, unscrupulous”.
Under the Biden plan, pharmacies would also be “activated” to distribute vaccines through consultations. This led CVS, one of the largest networks in the country, to say that it was ready to distribute 1 million photos a day in 10,000 locations. Biden also said that states would have more transparent tools for planning the number of doses to be administered.
Biden’s administration also needs to approve new vaccines to address supply shortages and improve supply chains for the personal protective equipment that healthcare professionals need to do their job safely. Gloves, for example, have been missing for months.
To address these shortcomings, Biden pledged to use the Defense Production Act, which allows the government to direct private suppliers to produce goods in order to make protective equipment, vaccines and vaccination supplies.
Another major challenge of the vaccination effort has been to convince Americans to take injections, as Trump sowed misinformation and confusion during the pandemic. Biden said his government will undertake “a massive public education campaign” and increase transparency to help Americans understand the vaccine.
It is important to note that Biden also asked Americans to “mask” for 100 days, an effort he said could save 50,000 lives if Americans universally pledged to wear facial covers. Despite the new B117 variant, scientists believe that human behavior remains the most powerful tool to bend the curve of new infections.
“Our government will lead with science and scientists,” said Biden.
Biden’s speech came a day after he announced a $ 1.9 trillion bailout package for the American economy, which included financing for his vaccination efforts, while the economy deteriorated amid the widespread transmission from Covid- 19. In December, another 787,000 workers applied for unemployment benefits.
Biden’s speech came on the same day that the world marked the death of 2 million people with the coronavirus, a year after the crisis began, and how an uneven recovery saw wealthy nations begin to vaccinate their populations, while nations developing countries could only wait.