|
 Biden has promised to take more serious action to curb the virus
than his predecessor, President Donald Trump, and get 100 million
vaccine shots into the arms of Americans during his first 100 days
in office.
"The vaccines offer so much hope ... but the vaccine rollout in the
United States has been a dismal failure thus far," Biden said in
remarks late on Thursday as he unveiled a $1.9 trillion stimulus
plan to tackle the virus and revive the pandemic-hit economy.
The Democrat, who takes office on Wednesday, is expected to set out
in more detail his plan to stem the coronavirus that has killed more
than 385,000 people in the United States and infected nearly 7% of
the population.
He will set out the plan on Friday afternoon near his home in
Wilmington, Delaware.
In announcing his stimulus proposal, which includes $20 billion for
vaccine distribution as well as $50 billion for coronavirus testing,
Biden pledged to "move heaven and earth" to vaccinate more
Americans.
"This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts we've
ever undertaken as a nation," Biden said.
The Trump administration had aimed to give vaccine doses to 20
million Americans by the end of 2020, but fell far short of that
target.
[to top of second column] |
 Only 11.1 million coronavirus
shots had been administered as of Thursday out
of more than 30 million doses distributed to
states, according to data from the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Federal officials largely left states to manage
distribution, resulting in big differences in
vaccination rates even as daily deaths hit new
records.
The Trump administration said this week it was
releasing millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses it
had been holding back for second shots and urged
states to offer them to all Americans over age
65 or with chronic health conditions in an
effort to speed up distribution. The
administration says it expects to reach 1
million shots a day by the end of next week.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Wilmington,
Delaware; Writing by Simon Lewis; Editing by
Colleen Jenkins, Robert Birsel)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content
 |
