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“There is no detailed plan that we’ve seen anyway for how to get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, onto someone’s arm,” Biden said at an event in Wilmington, Delaware.
“It’s going to be very difficult to do that and it is a very expensive proposition,” Biden said. He noted: “There is much more to do.”
Biden stressed the importance of distributing the vaccine equitably across the country, noting that Black and Hispanic people infected with the virus have died at disproportionately higher rates than white people. He said his team is also looking to get healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities to get the vaccine first, as recently recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The president-elect said he was encouraged by bipartisan efforts in the Senate around a $ 900 billion aid package, but noted that any package passed in the lame duck session of Congress would be insufficient.
“I think they are on their way to being able to create a package that meets the immediate basic needs that we have, but I have made it very clear, it is just a down payment. This is not the end of the deal,” Biden said. CNN has reported that the president-elect and his team are preparing to push through an ambitious new stimulus bill once he takes office on January 20.
Biden did not respond to whether he had reached out to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell about the passage of a compromise stimulus bill. “We will be in serious trouble if we don’t get cooperation. I think we will,” Biden said when asked if he had spoken to McConnell.
McConnell’s office declined to comment on whether the two men actually spoke. Two other senior advisers who are in close contact with the Majority Leader also said they did not know if McConnell and Biden had spoken.
The president-elect said “it would be better” if the package included stimulus checks for $ 1,200, adding: “I understand it may still be at stake.”
“The purpose of this is that we have to make sure that people are not kicked out of their apartments, lose their homes, can have unemployment insurance with which they can continue to feed their families as the economy grows again,” added. Biden said.
The US economy added 245,000 jobs in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That number was 224,000 less than economists expected and a huge slowdown from the 610,000 jobs added in October.
Biden described Friday’s employment report as “bleak”, saying: “It shows an economy that is stagnating and we remain in the midst of one of the worst economic and employment crises in modern history.”
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” Biden said. He urged Congress to act immediately to bring economic relief to Americans, saying that if Congress and President Donald Trump do not act by the end of December, millions of Americans would lose the unemployment benefits they depend on.
The president warned that inaction could lead to “a much higher economic cost due to long-term unemployment and corporate bankruptcy.”
“The sooner we approve funding, the sooner we can turn the corner on Covid-19,” Biden said. He stressed the importance of substantial funding for vaccines and testing, to allow schools and businesses to reopen safely.
Opening plans
At his upcoming inauguration, Biden said he would follow the advice of public health experts to keep people safe and contain the spread of the virus, which has skyrocketed across the country. He said Americans should expect to see something more like what the Democratic National Convention looked like, which was almost entirely virtual.
“It’s highly unlikely that there are a million people on the (National) Mall going to the (Lincoln) Memorial,” Biden said. He said he assumed there would be no “gigantic inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
He said his team is consulting with House and Senate leaders on their plans, as well as with the people who helped organize the Democratic convention.
This story has been updated with additional information from Biden’s speech.
CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.
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