The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, in a conference on the vaccination plan of his government, this Friday.ALEX WONG / AFP
The president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, warned this Friday that, until his Administration implements the new policies of mass distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, "things are going to get worse before they get better."
The country is close to 400,000 dead as a result of the pandemic and the number of infections exceeds 23 million.
The future president offered an appearance where he stressed that his vaccination plan will aim to reach all corners of the country, for which he intends to increase the distribution of doses in pharmacies and have mobile clinics in rural areas and thus equalize the access.
"The mass vaccination plan in the United States has been a resounding failure so far," said Biden, who clarified that the changes in distribution policy that he intends to carry out will take time to appear in the statistics.
With only two vaccines licensed by the federal government, supplies are projected to be insufficient for the next several months.
State and local health officials had expected a distribution of reserved doses to be announced this week, but the Donald Trump Administration has warned that these will be destined to those who should receive the second dose and not to new groups of beneficiaries.
As of Thursday morning, official data indicated that States had received 30 million doses, of which 11.1 million had already been injected.
The Trump Administration aimed, after correcting it several times downwards, that by the end of 2020 more than 20 million citizens would have received a dose.
“You have my word.
We will handle the hell of this operation, "said Biden about the vaccine program implemented by Trump, and warned that" there will be setbacks "and it will take months to fully implement it.
The president-elect pledged to allocate federal resources and the support of the Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to increase immunization positions.
The plan includes vaccination programs in pharmacies, mobile clinics, homeless shelters, prisons and institutions that serve people with disabilities.
One of the key points in Biden's plan is to seek equitable access to the vaccine among the high-risk population to face "the tragic reality of the disproportionate impact that the virus has had on black, Latino and Native American people." .
The democrat said he was "convinced" that in his first 100 days in office, 100 million doses will be distributed, either for people who have not yet been vaccinated or for those awaiting the second injection.
The president-elect, who will take office on Wednesday 20, unveiled the vaccine distribution plan a day after announcing a $ 1.9 trillion aid plan to combat the economic and health crisis that plagues the world power .
One of the items in the package is an amount of 400,000 million to directly combat the pandemic, of which 20,000 million will go to a "national vaccine program."
So far in January, more than 40,000 Americans have died from coronavirus.
For several days the number of deaths has exceeded 4,000 a day, this is more than all those killed in the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English) warned this Friday about the variant B.1.1.7 of the virus, much more contagious and rapidly spreading, which they expect to become the main source infection in the country as of March.
In this scenario, it is possible that the wave of cases and deaths will continue to rise.
