The biggest problem in the US right now is not producing enough vaccine, but distributing it to the states, and there in turn getting the vaccine to women and men. In early December, the government’s goal was to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of the year. At the end of December, however, only a good eleven million doses had been delivered and only a good two million people had received a vaccination. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading immunologist and key government advisor on pandemic issues, said, “We certainly haven’t gotten to the numbers we were aiming for.” However, he was confident that this would change in January.
President-elect Joe Biden took the numbers as an opportunity to criticize incumbent President Donald Trump. If vaccinations continued at this rate, Biden said, it would take years, not months, for all US residents to be protected.
The official schedule of the President, which the White House sends out every day, always said between Christmas and New Years that the President worked tirelessly, even when he was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. However, not a day went by without Trump not being driven to the golf course. He essentially ceased governing after his election defeat.
He posted on Twitter that it was up to the states to arrange for the vaccinations once the government delivered the vaccine to them. The states complain, however, that they do not have the money. That could soon change, as the recently approved $ 900 billion corona aid package earmarked more than $ 8 billion for distributing the vaccines to the population. So far, the states had only $ 340 million available for this.
Almost 350,000 people in the United States have died as a result of Covid 19 disease. More people are currently dying from the disease in the country every day than were killed in the total number of deaths in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The number of new infections every day is around 200,000. Without a doubt, the pandemic will be Joe Biden’s greatest challenge when he moves into the White House on January 20.
Joe Biden received his first dose of vaccine just before Christmas
Biden said he wanted to see 100 million doses of vaccine injected in his first 100 days in office. That would mean that by the end of March, around 50 million out of 330 million people in the US would be protected from the virus. This week he again expanded his “Covid-19 Response Team”, i.e. the team that is supposed to fight the pandemic.
He has also announced that he will make use of the Defense Production Act, a law dating from the Korean War in the 1950s that allows the government to force companies to give top priority to certain materials that are important to the country to produce. The current government has recently made use of this law, for example to speed up the production of ampoules and syringes.
According to the government, the goal is to be able to vaccinate all US residents who want to by the end of June. The US has agreed with Pfizer and Moderna to deliver 200 million vaccine doses each by the end of June. The government recently reached an agreement with Pfizer for an additional shipment of 100 million cans by the end of July. That would mean that, ideally, up to 250 million people in the US could get the two necessary doses by summer.
Soon to become the top pandemic fighter in the United States, Joe Biden was among the first Americans to be vaccinated. He received his first dose just before Christmas. Biden was a priority for two reasons. Not only is he the President-elect of the United States – at the age of 78 he is also one of the most vulnerable groups.