Joe Biden has lambasted the Trump administration’s vaccine rollout, warning that distribution “is falling behind, far behind”, hours after Kamala Harris received her first dose of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine live on television as part of officials’ ongoing efforts to show the public that the vaccinations are safe.
“A few weeks ago the Trump administration suggested that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated by the end of December,” Biden said, at a Covid-19 briefing in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday. “With only a few days left in December, we have only vaccinated a few million so far.”
Biden said he would “move heaven and earth” to ramp up vaccination efforts, with the goal of administering 100m inoculations within his first 100 days in office. After he is inaugurated on 20 January, the president-elect said that he will harness the Defense Production Act to ramp up the production of materials needed for the vaccines, and launch a public education campaign to boost vaccine acceptance.
“We also know there is vaccine hesitancy in many communities, especially in Black, Latino and Native American communities who have not always been treated with the dignity and honesty they deserve by the federal government and the scientific community throughout our history,” he said. “We will do everything we can to show the vaccines are safe.”
The vice-president-elect received her dose of the vaccine just before 11am on Tuesday. Harris appeared before TV cameras at a hospital and sat down. “OK, let’s do it!” Harris told the nurse administering the vaccine.
“I barely felt it … Literally, this is about saving lives,” Harris said after receiving the vaccine. “I urge everyone: when it’s your turn, get vaccinated.”
Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, also received a dose of the vaccine on Tuesday. Biden received his first vaccine dose last week.
Half of Americans said they would take the vaccine, according to one recent survey, but one-quarter of those asked said they would not. Another 25% said they weren’t sure.
Scientists have stated that “herd immunity” – when enough of the population is immune to impede spread of the virus – will be achieved when 60% to 70% reach some level of immunity.
US Covid-19 cases have now reached 19,313,314 with 335,051 deaths, according to recent Johns Hopkins University data. Meanwhile, the US has seen a recent decrease in Covid-19 tests in the week ending Monday, according to a USA Today analysis.
The decline in tests came as many testing centers were shuttered for the holidays. Reports from 42 states revealed less testing, the newspaper said.
The top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday morning that Covid-19 has “gotten out of control in many respects” and was expected to increase even more after holiday travel. Fauci’s statements echo his prior warnings, which millions have repeatedly ignored.
“We’re in a very difficult situation,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on CNN’s New Day. “We never got down to a low baseline where you can actually control community spread by identification, isolation and contact tracing.”
Fauci’s statements came amid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) data indicating that 1.1 million travelers passed through US airports on 28 December. He urged those who traveled to take long-prescribed precautions.
“For those who have already done the travel, the thing to do now is to try not to congregate with large numbers of people in social settings like dinners – try to keep it restricted to the immediate family and the immediate household,” Fauci said, reiterating public health officials’ guidance.
“Once you get to large numbers of people at a dinner, inside, poor air ventilation and circulation, that’s when you get in trouble,” Fauci said. “And that’s what we’re concerned about, that in addition to the surge, we’re going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge, which could make January even worse than December.”
“I hope that doesn’t happen, but it certainly is possible,” Fauci said.
As public health officials combat rising infection rates, local and state authorities are also battling deep economic fallout from the pandemic.
New York passed a sweeping anti-eviction law on Monday evening, which prohibits landlords from kicking out tenants for at least another 60 days in most instances. According to the New York Times, this legislation would provide protection to some smaller landlords from potential foreclosures, and renew tax breaks for elderly or disabled homeowners.
The $900bn relief package Donald Trump signed on Sunday included $1.3bn for rental assistance for New Yorkers and prolonged a federal moratorium on evictions. However, before this assistance was finalized, unemployment benefits lapsed for millions of Americans.
