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US President-elect Joe Biden pledged Tuesday to make a vigorous effort to combat COVID-19 once he takes office, warning that outgoing President Donald Trump’s vaccination campaign is dangerously late.
Speaking after a meeting with experts, Biden vowed that when he enters his presidential duties, he will go to the “greatest operational challenge we face as a nation” to vaccinate Americans against this disease that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. .
Biden said, “The Trump administration’s plan to distribute vaccines is too late,” and promised that he will work “as hard as we can to go in the right direction.”
The Trump administration promised that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of December, but just three days before the end of the month, about 2.1 million had received their first vaccine injection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diseases.
Biden, who will take office on January 20, confirmed that he would turn to the Defense Production Act, which dates back to the Korean War, to force private companies to increase the production of vaccines for the government.
He also asked Americans to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19, noting that he would impose them in areas where the federal government has jurisdiction, such as airplanes.
“We will work to establish vaccination sites and send mobile units to remote communities,” Biden said, adding that he would ensure that “vaccines are distributed fairly so that everyone can receive them, regardless of their skin color and where they are. live “.
He hopes to return to normal life in 2021, but not immediately.
Biden indicated that “we may not see an improvement until we enter the month of March, because it will take time for our plan to tackle Covid-19 to make tangible progress.”
He considered that “the next weeks and months will be a very difficult period for our nation, and perhaps the most difficult period of the entire crisis of this epidemic.”
The United States recorded 245,500 new infections and 3,223 deaths Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In total, the total number of victims since the beginning of the epidemic has reached 19.5 million infections and more than 337,000 deaths, making the United States the country most affected by Covid-19 in the world.
