President Biden is facing pressure to aim even higher with his government’s vaccine distribution goals, with experts noting that his initial effort to deliver 100 million vaccines in 100 days does not differ dramatically from the current pace.
The new administration proclaimed its vaccination goal as “ambitious” and “bold”. But a group of experts says Biden’s goal is, in fact, much less than necessary to control the pandemic, especially with the increase in more contagious variants.
“100 million injections means 50 million people,” said Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, as the two vaccines currently available require two doses. “This is totally inappropriate.”
A more contagious variant found for the first time in the UK could be the dominant strain in the United States by March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned, further increasing cases and putting even more stress on hospitals. This makes faster vaccinations even more urgent.
“This is really the urgency that people are not understanding,” said Topol.
Biden officials emphasized that they will not stop vaccines if they reach the target before 100 days, so it is possible that the target will eventually be exceeded. However, experts say the goal is still important and the prevailing focus should be on delivering vaccines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In part, the new government is trying to set expectations that the pandemic will not change immediately and is trying to portray the Trump administration as having left little to work on in the vaccination effort.
“What we are inheriting is much worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients
Jeff ZientsBiden under pressure to deliver more injections COVID-19 Fauci: We are not ‘starting from scratch’ in vaccine delivery. These are the executive orders that Biden signed in the first three days of his term. MORE, Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.
Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciOvernight Health Care – Fauci: Lack of facts ‘probably’ cost lives in the fight against coronavirus | CDC changes the orientation of the COVID-19 vaccine to allow the rare mix of Pfizer and Moderna injections | Senate chaos threatens to slow down Biden Fauci’s agenda enraged by threats to the family Poll: Plurality of voters says coronavirus vaccine launch slower than expected MORE, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, told reporters on Thursday that the new government is “scaling up” what the Trump administration has done through a more active federal role, but “we are certainly not starting from scratch”.
The Trump administration has drawn criticism from experts for putting too much responsibility on states in the “last mile” to send vaccines without sufficient federal support and for not providing enough clear information on how much vaccine each state would receive and when.
Still, despite problems with the initial launch, the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. had already risen close to the goal that Biden set at 1 million kicks a day before his government even took over. The United States had an average of 911,000 shots a day on January 19, according to data compiled by Our World in Data, just before the target Biden wanted.
“Don’t let the media and Democratic politicians interpret it differently,” Rep. Steve Scalise
Stephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseBiden inauguration marked by the conflict of hope and fear Scalise bringing Donna Brazile as a guest at the inauguration Biden Legislator GOP: Trump ‘put all our lives at risk’ MORE (La.), The Republican whip of the House, tweeted on Thursday. “The Biden Vaccine Plan is Trump’s Vaccine Plan. The United States was already on its way to 100 million doses in 100 days. “
Paul Offit, a vaccine specialist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the United States could need around 250 million people vaccinated to achieve collective immunity, when a sufficient population is immune for the spread of the virus to decrease dramatically.
“For a two-dose vaccine, it’s 500 million doses, so when you talk about giving a million doses a day, we’ll probably be better off with about 3 million doses a day if we can get there,” he said. “One million doses a day is not enough to get there quickly.”
Biden was on the defensive on Thursday when a reporter asked if 100 million shots in 100 days are sufficient, as the United States is already on the way to reaching that goal.
“When I announced it, you all said it was not possible,” said Biden. “Come on. Give me a break, man. It’s a good start, 100 million.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki
Jen PsakiBiden under pressure to deliver more doses of COVID-19 Biden, Trudeau agrees to meet next month, Democrats seek answers about the impact of the Russian cyber attack on the Justice Department, Courts MORE on Friday, he said there was always room to exceed the target, but noted a series of headwinds, including vaccine hesitation and supply problems.
“If we get over it, great,” she said. “We will continue to work after the 100th day as well.”
The Biden government is taking a series of measures to increase federal support for the vaccination effort, regardless of the goal set. Biden signed an order to use the Defense Production Act more fully to require companies to increase the manufacture of vaccine supplies.
One area of focus is to increase the supply of special syringes that can extract an extra dose of the vaccine that is in some vials, thereby increasing the number of doses available.
The government also plans to use the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish vaccination sites administered by the federal government, with a target of 100 sites in the first month.
There are also doubts about how many doses of vaccine will be available. Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to have 100 million doses for the United States by the end of March – double what is needed to meet Biden’s goal – although manufacturing problems are likely to reduce those numbers.
Authorities hope that a third vaccine, from Johnson & Johnson, can be authorized in the coming weeks, which will provide an additional supply.
But Biden government officials said they were still trying to understand what the supply situation was and had no exact projections from the manufacturers.
The new administration is also looking to improve communication with state leaders, who complained that the Trump team did not give them information about their allocations well in advance for proper planning.
Time is running out, said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan, due to the spread of more contagious variants.
“They emphasize the real need to continue accelerating the launch as much as possible,” he said. “Because, to some extent, it’s a race between a more contagious virus and our ability to protect people.”