WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will release the most available doses of COVID-19 vaccine to speed up delivery to more people, a reversal of the Trump administration’s policy, his office said Friday.
“The president-elect believes that we need to speed up the distribution of the vaccine, while continuing to make sure that the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” spokesman TJ Ducklo said in a statement. Biden “supports the immediate release of available doses and believes that the government should no longer impede the supply of vaccine so that we can get more shots in the arms of Americans now.”
Under the Trump administration’s approach, the government withheld a number of vaccines to ensure that people could receive a second shot, providing maximum protection against COVID-19. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require a second shot about three weeks after the first vaccination. One-shot vaccines are still being tested.
After a glimmer of hope, when the first vaccines were approved last month, the national inoculation campaign began slowly. Of the 29.4 million doses distributed, approximately 5.9 million were administered, or 27%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden has already indicated his dissatisfaction. In a speech last week, before his election victory was certified by Congress, the president-elect said he intends to speed up vaccinations by giving the federal government a stronger role in ensuring that vaccines are not only available. but that shots will be fired into the arms of several Americans.
“The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines lags far behind,” Biden said. “If it continues to move as it is now, it will take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
The American Hospital Association estimates that the nation should vaccinate 1.8 million people a day, every day from January 1 to May 31, to achieve the goal of widespread immunity by summer. This is also called “herd immunity” and would involve vaccinating at least 75% of the population.
Without elaborating, Biden said his administration will implement a much more aggressive vaccination campaign, with greater federal involvement and leadership, and with the goal of managing 100 million photos in the first 100 days.
He said he and President-elect Kamala Harris had discussed with state and local leaders a coordinated approach that brings together the efforts of governments at all levels. Among the peculiarities: the opening of vaccination centers and the sending of mobile vaccination units to hard-to-reach communities.
“The most important thing is that there is no coordinated national plan,” Biden councilor Dr. Rick Bright told The Associated Press.
Ducklo said Biden will share further details next week on how his administration will handle the pandemic when it takes office on January 20th.
Biden’s plan to change the vaccine distribution plan was first reported by CNN.