Spc. Nevada Army National Guard Katherine Deskins (L) administers a Modern COVID-19 vaccination to Captain Jasmine Ghazinour of the Clark County Fire Department on the first day of the Clark County Vaccination Pilot Program at Cashman Center on January 14, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden plans to use FEMA and the National Guard to build coronavirus vaccine clinics in the United States, according to new details of his Covid-19 vaccination plan, launched Friday by his transition team.
The Biden administration will also “quickly restart” efforts to make vaccines available at local US pharmacies, which should ensure that Americans have access to doses at facilities just a few miles from home, according to the plan.
“Here’s the thing: the more people we vaccinate, the sooner we do it, the sooner we can save lives and put this pandemic behind us and get back to our lives and our loved ones,” Biden said. a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Thursday night. “We will not get out of it overnight and we cannot do it as a separate nation.”
Pharmacy chains and pharmacies had to take on a bigger role in distributing the vaccine once the government expanded access to more people. But the slower-than-expected launch has frustrated pharmacy chains. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores called on the federal government earlier this week to allow states to send more doses directly to pharmacies, as they do with hospitals and health departments.
The group estimated that the country’s retail pharmacies could deliver at least 100 million doses of vaccines each month, which would exceed the administration’s promise of 100 million photos in 100 days.
The Biden administration said current vaccination efforts were not enough to vaccinate the vast majority of the U.S. population quickly and fairly, adding, “We need to make sure those on the ground have what they need to get vaccinated in people’s arms.”
The pace of vaccinations in the US is going much slower than officials hoped. As of Friday, at 6 a.m. ET, more than 31.1 million doses of vaccine had been distributed in the United States, but just over 12.2 million photos had been administered, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, cases are growing rapidly, with the US recording at least 238,800 new cases of Covid-19 and at least 3,310 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University.
“We’re staying in a very dark winter,” Biden said during a speech on Friday. “Almost a year later we are still far from returning to normal. The honest truth is this: things will get worse before they get better,” he said. He called the launch of the vaccine in the United States a “failure.”
According to the plan, Biden will also invoke the Defense Production Act to “maximize vaccine manufacturing and vaccine supply for the country.”
Advisers to the first president have previously suggested he would invoke the wartime production law, which allows the president to force companies to prioritize production for national security, to support vaccine production.
The plan says the act will increase the supply of necessary equipment, which could otherwise cause blockages in the vaccine if they were missing, including glass vials, syringes, stoppers and needles. It will also increase the ability to pack vaccines in vials.
Biden’s plan will also encourage states to open eligibility beyond health care workers and residents and long-term care facility staff, and will include key front-line workers such as teachers, first responders, grocery store employees. and anyone 65 or older.
The CDC issued new guidelines on Tuesday that expanded the eligibility of the coronavirus vaccine for all people age 65 and older, as well as for those with comorbid conditions such as diabetes. About 53 million Americans 65 and older and 110 million people between the ages of 16 and 64 with comorbid conditions are now eligible to receive the vaccine if each state adopts the guidelines, according to the CDC.
“It will not mean that everyone in these groups will be vaccinated immediately, because the supply is not where it needs to be,” the transition team wrote. “But it will mean that as vaccines become available, they will reach more people who need them.”
This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.