WASHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., battling an increase in coronavirus cases and the emergence of a new variant that could worsen the crisis, is planning a vaccination offensive that requires a vast expansion of access to the vaccine during the use of law war to increase production.
In a speech on Friday in Wilmington, Del., Mr. Biden told Americans that “we are going through a very dark winter”, allowing, “the honest truth is this: things are going to get worse before it gets better.”
“I told you,” he said, “I will always be honest with you.” But he also tried to offer hope for an end to a pandemic that claimed nearly 390,000 American lives and eroded the country’s economic and social fabric.
“Our plan is as clear as it is bold: vaccinate more people for free, create more places for them to get vaccinated, mobilize more medical teams to carry vaccines on people’s laps, increase the supply and take them out as soon as possible,” he said , calling it “one of the most challenging operational efforts ever undertaken by our country”.
He pledged to increase vaccination availability in pharmacies, build mobile clinics to provide vaccines to underserved rural and urban communities and encourage states to expand vaccine eligibility for people 65 and older. Biden also promised to make racial equality a priority in fighting a virus that disproportionately infected and killed people of color.
“You have my word,” he declared, “we’re going to run this operation like hell.”
But the president-elect’s expansive vision is clashing with a worrying reality: with only two vaccines authorized by the federal government, supplies will be scarce in the coming months, frustrating some state and local health officials who expected the launch of a federal vaccine stock the doses announced this week may ease that shortage.
Biden is clearly prepared to assert a role for the federal government that President Trump refused to embrace, using the crisis to rebuild the country’s public health services and Washington’s money to hire a new health workforce and send the National guard. But many of your bold promises will be difficult to keep.
Even if Biden invokes the Korean War-era Defense Production Act, it may take some time to alleviate vaccine shortages. The law has already been invoked, with important but limited effects. Their pledges to build mass vaccination sites supported by the federal government and develop new programs to serve high-risk people, including people with disabilities and prisoners, will only work if there are vaccines to administer.
“This does not mean that everyone in this group will be vaccinated immediately, as the supply is not where it should be,” acknowledged Biden. But, as new doses become available, he promised, “we will reach more people who need them.”
The vaccine distribution plan comes a day after Biden proposes a $ 1.9 trillion rescue package to combat the economic slowdown and the Covid-19 crisis, including a $ 20 billion “national vaccine program” . The president-elect has said repeatedly that he intends to take “100 million vaccines from Covid in the arms of the American people” until his 100th day in office.
Time is essential. With the death toll now reaching nearly 4,000 a day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sounded the alarm on Friday about a much more contagious and rapidly spreading variant of the coronavirus that is projected to become the dominant source of infection in the United States in March, potentially fueling another violent increase in cases and deaths.
“I think we will see, in six to eight weeks, a great transmission in this country, as we are seeing in England”, Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of the advisory board Mr. Biden’s report on coronavirus. “If we can establish vaccine clinics more quickly and efficiently, how many lives will we save?”
In some ways, Biden’s plan echoes that outlined this week by Trump’s health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, who encouraged states to vaccinate people 65 and older. The Trump administration has also pledged to employ pharmacies to administer injections and to invoke the Defense Production Act when necessary.
When Azar announced on Tuesday that the federal government was releasing a stockpile of vaccine doses, some state health officials hoped to get more out of their weekly shipments to help meet growing demand as the pandemic gets out of hand.
But now, states are facing a harsh reality. This stock consisted only of vaccines for booster vaccines for people who had already received the first dose. This means that releasing this pool will not expand inoculations to a new group of people. Federal officials said second doses will be prioritized in weekly shipments to ensure everyone can receive a booster shot.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, posted on Twitter that she had received “disturbing news” on Thursday night: “The states will no longer receive shipments of vaccines from the national stock next week, because there is no federal dose reserve.” She added: “I am shocked and shocked that they have set an expectation that they could not fulfill, with such serious consequences.”
A senior government official said on Friday that the government expects the two vaccine companies, Moderna and Pfizer, to deliver 8 to 12 million doses of vaccine per week to the public in the coming weeks – shipments that will be split between those who receive their first and second shots. The two companies have agreements with the federal government to supply a total of 200 million doses to the United States – or enough to vaccinate 100 million people – by the end of March.
The European Union is also battling the scarcity, amid news that Pfizer plans to suspend production of its vaccine for weeks, while updating its factory in Puurs, Belgium, to achieve its goal of producing two billion doses this year – above its previous target of 1.3 billion. The move will reduce deliveries to member states of the European Union, as well as other countries.
The plan that Biden launched on Friday is part of a broader effort to use the current crisis to rebuild the country’s public health infrastructure – Democrats on Capitol Hill have long been a goal. As part of his stimulus package, he also proposed to increase federal funding for community health centers and called for a new “public health jobs program” that would fund 100,000 public health workers to get involved in vaccine dissemination and health screening. contacts.
“The details still need to be worked out, but this is really a critical recognition that state and local health agencies need to be strengthened in a way that hasn’t happened in decades,” said Dr. Osterholm.
But Dr. Marcus Plescia, the medical director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers, expressed caution about the idea and urged Biden to consult members of his group before creating a new body of public health workers.
“We would really like to see you bring some more people with some experience in the field to your team,” said Dr. Plescia. “One of the things about a federal employment corps is, how do these people interact with state public health departments? You really need to think about it. “
Biden’s attempt to improve public health infrastructure is reminiscent of the approach he and President Barack Obama took with the economy devastated by the recession they inherited in 2009, when Biden was the newly installed vice president. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff at the time, said then that a serious crisis should never “go to waste” because it could provide “an opportunity to do things you don’t think you could do before”.
In an interview on Friday, Emanuel, who served two terms as mayor of Chicago, praised Biden for his plan to invest in such clinics – also known as federally qualified health centers, or FQHCs.
“FQHC is uniquely the best preventive health care for communities that are difficult to access,” said Emanuel, adding that “what is great about this investment that the president-elect is making is establishing a foundation” for a strong health response to crises future.
Biden has long pledged to undertake a federal response far more aggressive than the approach of leaving it to the Trump states.
Also on Friday, Biden’s team announced that it intended to eliminate Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s rapid vaccine initiative. Dr. David A. Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration who has been advising Biden about the pandemic, will lead the new government’s efforts to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines.
“OWS is the name of the Trump team for your program,” Jennifer Psaki, Biden’s spokesperson, wrote on Twitter, using the program initials. “We are introducing a new structure, which will have a name other than OWS.”