WASHINGTON – President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday criticized the speed at which the vaccine was being distributed under the Trump administration and vowed to accelerate the pace when he takes office, while soberly warning about the number of pandemic victims. of the coronavirus.
Biden made a bleak assessment of the coming months, saying it would be “a very difficult period for our nation”, and urged Americans to make the sacrifices necessary to overcome the devastation of the virus.
“It will take all the courage and determination we have as Americans to do this,” he said.
He warned that if the current pace of vaccine administration under President Trump continues, “it will take years, not months” to vaccinate the country. And he said he instructed his team to prepare a more aggressive effort as soon as he takes office in three weeks, promising “to move heaven and earth to take us in the right direction”.
“This will be the biggest operational challenge we have ever faced as a nation,” said Biden during a speech in Wilmington, Del., “But we are going to solve this.”
Biden will assume the presidency in the midst of a health crisis that has already killed more than 336,000 people in the United States and inflicted a broad economic crisis. Distributing vaccines to the American people will be an initial test for him.
Earlier this month, federal officials said their goal was for 20 million people to receive their first vaccines by the end of the year. As of Monday morning, 11.4 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were shipped across the country, but only 2.1 million people in the United States received their first dose, according to a panel maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Control and Prevention, which probably reflects a delay of several days in the report.
Biden promised to put 100 million vaccines in the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office; vaccination currently requires two injections, which suggests that about 50 million people would be vaccinated in that period.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden announced new members of his Covid-19 response team, including coordinators to handle vaccinations, testing and supply chain management.
Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to accelerate vaccine development and implementation, has spent billions of dollars to help pharmaceutical companies test and manufacture their vaccines and ensure they have a buyer. These investments helped vaccines become available much faster than many experts had predicted.
Still, putting these vaccines in the arms started slower than federal authorities expected.
“We are certainly not in the numbers we wanted at the end of December,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist, told CNN on Tuesday. But he added: “I believe that as we enter January, we will see an increase in momentum.”
Moncef Slaoui, Operation Warp Speed’s scientific adviser, said last week that the chances were high that the first 100 million people in the United States would be immunized by the end of March.
Michael Pratt, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, defended the pace of the vaccine’s launch. He said in a statement that it was “proof of the success of Operation Warp Speed” that 20 million doses had already been made available to states and other jurisdictions. (Not all doses were sent.) And Mr. Trump said in one tweet that it was up to “the States to distribute the vaccines once they have been taken to the areas designated by the Federal Government”.
The pace of inoculation in the United States is expected to increase in the early months of next year, as more vaccine supplies become available and more facilities begin to distribute them to a larger selection of Americans. So far, vaccines have been given mainly to healthcare professionals in hospitals and residents of nursing homes and other long-term care institutions.
In his comments on Tuesday, Biden said he could “see a return to normality next year”, but he also offered a sinister prediction for the near future. “We need to prepare for what is to come,” he said, adding that the next few months could be “the most difficult during this entire pandemic.”
“I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s the truth,” he said.
He expressed hope that Trump, who resisted wearing a mask and mocked Biden during the campaign to wear one, can still positively influence the public.
“It would make a big difference for President Trump to say, ‘Wear masks,'” said Biden. “I hope the president clearly and unequivocally demands all Americans to get the vaccine as soon as it becomes available.”
Hours before Biden spoke, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. The injection was administered live on television, as was Biden’s last week, when he received the vaccine from Pfizer at a hospital in Delaware.
Ms. Harris received the Modern vaccine at United Medical Center, a public hospital in southeastern Washington. She encouraged Americans to get vaccinated too, saying, “It’s relatively painless. It happens very fast. It’s safe. “Her husband, Doug Emhoff, also received the vaccine on Tuesday.
State and local officials have long said they need more money to distribute and administer vaccines. The $ 900 billion aid package that Trump signed on Sunday sets aside more than $ 8 billion for vaccine distribution, almost in line with the $ 8.4 billion that health departments requested from Congress. The CDC in September sent $ 200 million to states for the effort, followed by another $ 140 million this month.
The government said the goal is to allow anyone who wants a vaccine to get it by June, but has not yet guaranteed a sufficient supply of vaccines authorized for use. The United States has secured enough vaccine commitments to vaccinate 200 million of the approximately 260 million adult Americans who are eligible to be inoculated.
Moderna has agreed to supply 200 million doses of its vaccine to the United States, with the first half arriving in late March and the second in late June.
Pfizer also agreed to supply 200 million doses. With each person needing two injections, this leaves the supply of 120 million short doses.
During the summer, before its vaccine proved effective, Pfizer agreed to supply the United States with 100 million starting doses. At the time, the government passed on an offer from Pfizer to secure additional supplies.
But when it became clear that more doses were needed, the government resumed negotiations with Pfizer. In an agreement announced last week, Pfizer agreed to supply 70 million additional doses by the end of June and another 30 million by the end of July.
As part of the deal, the government agreed to invoke the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that allows the government to secure essential supplies more quickly, forcing suppliers to prioritize orders from a specific contractor. Operation Warp Speed has used the Defense Production Law 18 times, including to help produce glass vials and syringes, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Biden said on Tuesday that he would also make use of the Defense Production Act when he took office, saying that he “would order private industry to speed up the production of the materials needed for vaccines, as well as protective equipment.”
The government has some avenues to provide vaccines to 60 million adult Americans not covered by existing agreements with Pfizer and Moderna.
You may be able to exercise options to buy more doses of Pfizer or Moderna. The government may also use vaccines from other manufacturers that are expected to report final results in the coming weeks. Johnson & Johnson expects results by the end of next month of a test of its single injection vaccine, a format that would make it easier to apply than vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. And a trial in the United States evaluating a double vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford may have results in February.
On Tuesday, Biden acknowledged that he was not yet in control of the government’s response to the virus, saying, “My ability to change the direction of this pandemic begins in three weeks.” And he made it clear that he would need Congressional help next year to provide additional funding to carry out his plans.
But even as he warned of the difficult weeks and months to come, he gave an optimistic note about the long term.
“We are going to get over this,” he said. “Better days are coming.”
Thomas Kaplan reported from Washington, and Rebecca Robbins from Bellingham, Wash.