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BETHESDA: US President Joe Biden said on Thursday (February 11) that the coronavirus vaccination program he inherited from Donald Trump was in “much worse shape” than he expected, asking for patience, saying that the government has bought 200 million more doses.
“We’re not going to have everything fixed for a while, but we are going to fix it,” Biden said in remarks at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
With demand for the vaccine far outstripping supply, Americans are scrambling to get appointments for their vaccines, leaving Biden with an acute problem less than a month after replacing Trump.
Biden said Trump, who spent his last two months in office in a futile effort to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 presidential election he lost, did not order enough vaccinations and did not do enough to get people to line up to get vaccinated. .
He said the vaccine program he inherited was in “much worse shape” than he had anticipated and that his team had been misled about providing vaccines.
“While scientists did their job in discovering vaccines in record time, my predecessor, I’ll be very frank about it, did not do his job preparing for the daunting challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions,” Biden said.
A representative for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for a reaction to Biden’s comments. Trump had expressed pride in the speed of vaccine development during his tenure.
Biden said the US government has signed contracts for 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine and 100 million more from Pfizer.
“We appreciate the confidence that the United States government has shown in our COVID-19 vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a press release.
Biden said the death toll from coronavirus in the US is likely to hit 500,000 next month. He urged Americans to wear masks to prevent the spread.
“We have now purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate all Americans,” Biden said. He said the United States, which has a population of about 330 million, was on track to have 300 million doses by the end of July.
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