Americans will have to wait “months” before anyone who wants a Covid-19 vaccine can get it and Congressional funding is “essential,” warned the White House coronavirus task force – at its first public meeting under Joe Biden.
The sober assessment came at a time when the task force was seeking to set a new tone of transparency after last year’s televised briefings became notorious for then President Donald Trump’s political arrogance, claiming the virus would “go away” and promises of “miracle cures”.
Biden, by contrast, was not present on Wednesday. “The White House respects and will follow science, and scientists will speak independently,” Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House to Covid’s response, told reporters.
“At the moment, I want to clarify to the public that we are facing two restrictive factors. The first is to obtain supplies quickly enough and the second is to obtain the ability to administer vaccines quickly, as they are produced and sent to the sites. “
Slavitt added: “We are taking steps to increase supply and increase capacity, but it will still take months before anyone who wants a vaccine can get it.”
Biden is under pressure to speed up vaccinations across the country after a slow start under Trump. So far this week, the government has reached its goal of one million vaccinations a day, the task force said. Overall, it has delivered 47 million doses to states and long-term care facilities and has administered nearly 24 million so far.
On Tuesday, the president announced plans to buy 200 million extra doses of vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer. And Slavitt said the task force identified 12 areas where Biden authorized the use of the Defense Production Act – a law that directs private companies to prioritize requests from the federal government – to increase production. But the White House says it cannot solve the crisis alone.
Biden proposed a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill to Congress, which includes funding to administer vaccines, increase testing and help schools and businesses reopen. But several Republicans have already raised objections, raising fears of a political stalemate that paralyzes the rescue effort.
Jeffrey Zients, task force coordinator, said it was “essential” for Congress to pass the law. “For all Americans to be vaccinated, we need Congress to provide funds for vaccination. We still do very few tests in this country; we need to increase testing significantly. We need Congress to fund more tests to reopen schools and businesses ”.
He added: “In addition, believe it or not, PPE and other critical materials are still missing. We need emergency funds to ensure that we have these materials. So these are just three of the main areas that need to be financed by Congress if we are to carry out the president’s national plan. ”
The pandemic remains Biden’s most urgent priority. The United States now has more than 25 million cases and 425,406 deaths. Rochelle Walensky, the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said her agency’s latest forecast indicates that the country will register between 479,000 to 514,000 deaths by February 20.
The task force urged people to continue to wear masks, wash their hands and maintain physical distance to mitigate the spread of the virus, as the cases remain “extraordinarily high”.
Wednesday’s briefing was conducted virtually, rather than in person at the White House, to allow questions from health journalists, but suffered some technical problems. When infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci came, the screen displayed the words “Dr. Anthony Fauci’s scientific update” with the White House logo, but there was a long silence. Six colleagues could be seen in windows on the side of the screen. One held up a sign that said, “We can’t hear you.”
Fauci, who admitted to feeling free of Trump’s criticism and misinformation, said there was cause for concern over the so-called South African variant of the virus, because laboratory tests have shown that it may diminish the protective power of vaccines approved so far. But Fauci emphasized that the level of protection provided is still within what he called the “mattress” of the vaccine’s effectiveness.
A vaccine still being tested is being evaluated for effectiveness against the South African variant and another strain that emerged in Brazil, added Fauci. “We will always want to be one or two steps ahead of what may be a problem in the future.”
The United States ranks only 43rd in the world in terms of screening for genetic variants of Covid-19, however, a situation described by Zients as “completely unacceptable”.
In another Trump break, task force briefings will take place regularly, with the next on Friday. Biden told reporters this week: “We are bringing the professionals back to talk about Covid in a bare and raw way. Any questions you have, this is how we will deal with them, because we are letting science speak again. “