The frustration grows with the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. The Trump administration had pledged 20 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year, but so far less than 3 million injections have been given and just over 11 million doses have been sent.
President elect Joe Biden suggested Tuesday that the Trump administration has promised too much and delivered too little. Mr. Biden noted that at the current rate, it would take years to vaccinate the country against COVID-19. Mr. Biden pledged to speed up the pace of vaccinations and boost Americans’ confidence in the shots once he is sworn in next month.
“This is the biggest operational challenge we have faced as a nation,” said Mr Biden on Tuesday.
Mr Biden said his forthcoming government will move heaven and earth to get the vaccination effort back on track. “We can, but it will take up to 1 million injections a day, but it will take months for the majority to be vaccinated,” he said.
Mr. Biden gave little detail on how his government will achieve that goal, but said he would invoke the Defense Production Act to speed up the needed supply of vaccines. He called the recently passed $ 900 billion COVID bill a down payment for controlling the pandemic.
Thousands of vulnerable seniors lined up in Florida on Tuesday, some waiting overnight, hoping to secure a coveted first dose of the COVID vaccine. “He’s over 70, diabetic, and we thought, like everyone else, this is a life or death vaccine,” Marie Petitti said of her husband, Tony.
But there aren’t enough vaccines for everyone in line in Lee County, which was ready at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. Distribution is slower than promised.
In Georgia, nursing home residents have just started the injection 11 days after the FDA approved the Moderna vaccine.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. Ten months after this pandemic, we’re still talking about the basics of how to get vaccines into people’s arms,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
“We clearly have a huge demand that is not being met, and there is no well-coordinated, thought-out plan for how we are going to vaccinate,” Jha added.
Distribution plans and implementation fall under the already stalled public health departments.
The new COVID bill has allocated $ 8.75 billion for vaccine distribution, including $ 4.5 billion for states. But it will take time to distribute that money, slowing down essential outreach campaigns.