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Biden slashes his goal of 100 million vaccines in a race to life and death against new variants of the virus

2021-03-18T17:37:40.398Z


The president promised to reach that goal in 100 days and can achieve it in advance, but the numbers of infections are again worrying medical experts.


The Administration chaired by Joe Biden is about to meet the goal of supplying 100 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19, but not in his first 100 days in the White House, as he had said, but 

in just two months.

The United States has administered more than 96 million vaccines since Biden took office in January, averaging nearly 2.5 million injections a day in the past week, according to data compiled by NBC News as of Wednesday.

In total, more than 113 million doses have already been administered, counting those under the Administration of former President Donald Trump, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English).

22% of people in the United States have received at least one dose and 12% are fully immunized.

[Follow our coverage on the coronavirus pandemic]

"There is light and hope that we will have better days ahead," Biden said a few days ago when he announced that he will order states that all adults can receive the vaccine regardless of age or medical conditions no later than May 1.

But despite the swift vaccination campaign and the president's message of hope, the pandemic is far from being left behind.

Although the spread of the coronavirus has slowed in several areas of the country, including pockets such as the South and the Midwest, cases are on the rise in the

Northeast.

In

New York and New Jersey,

new infections per capita are at least twice the national average, according to data from The New York Times.

The rebound is also worrying in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The state of New York registers an average of seven days with 35 new daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants, behind New Jersey that had 41, compared to the national average of 17 cases.

This is in part because

the virus keeps mutating.

Several weeks ago, a new variant was first detected in New York City.

There, 44 cases have been detected per 100,000 residents, more than five times the per capita rate in Los Angeles County, for example.

Stephen J. Thomas, chief of infectious diseases at Upstate Medical University, pointed to several factors, including 

new variants, group meetings without a mask, and rising temperatures.

"Every person we can vaccinate or every person we can put a mask on is one less chance for a variant," he warned.

The new variants

Throughout the pandemic, new variants have appeared, but

three of them are the ones that have caused the most concern.

These are the mutations first detected in

Great Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

One of the biggest concerns is that vaccines do not fully protect against these variants.

Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, are modifying the composition 

of their vaccine and are discussing with regulatory bodies in the United States and Europe a study to evaluate updated doses to better accommodate variants such as the one discovered in South Africa.

The effectiveness of

Johnson & Johnson's

vaccine

varied when researchers tested the vaccine in other countries where variants of the coronavirus are circulating.

In Latin America, where the P.1 variant has appeared, the vaccine was found to be 66% effective.

In studies carried out in South Africa, where a variant called B.1.351 circulates, the efficacy was lower: 64%.

Meanwhile, the Astrazeneca vaccine, whose use several countries have discontinued due to fears of possible blood clots, has been shown to

be less effective against the variant detected in South Africa

, according to a recent study.

[A more contagious variant of the coronavirus spreads "exponentially"]

The variant identified in the UK late last year has already been found in 45 states across the country, according to the CDC.

Another variant of the coronavirus circulating in California has also drawn attention.

Between 40% and 50% of the samples analyzed by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health have been found.

The country's leading epidemiologist, Anthony Fauci, had already warned: "There are going to be new variants," he told NBC News, "the trick is to prevent them from spreading once they are introduced."

Therefore, experts reiterate the

importance of the use of masks and social distancing

as measures that will reduce the increase in infections and more mutations of the virus.

With information from NBC News and The New York Times.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-03-18

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