President-elect Joe Biden promised a more energetic response from the US government to the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what we know about his plans to speed up the vaccine’s launch and defeat Covid-19:
What is Joe Biden’s vaccine distribution plan?
Biden wants to speed up the pace of vaccinations, setting a goal to administer 100 million doses of the vaccine during the first 100 days of his presidency. He would spend $ 20 billion on the national vaccination program.
To speed up vaccination, he said his government would work with federal, state and local officials to establish thousands of community vaccination centers across the country and to deploy mobile units in rural and underserved areas. Biden promised 100 centers supported by the federal government by the end of his first month in office. The Federal Emergency Management Agency would help install them, and the federal government would reimburse states that sent the National Guard to help with vaccination. Biden also said he plans to increase the rate of vaccinations by making injections available at independent and chain pharmacies.
In addition, Mr. Biden promised to make the vaccine available to all members of the public free of charge, without cost sharing, regardless of immigration status.
His administration also planned to release almost all available vaccine doses. The Trump administration was withholding the stock for the second doses, but then decided to release them as the Covid-19 cases increased.