Trump’s 20m vaccinations boast failure
WASHINGTON: The first known United States case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant was detected yesterday in Colorado, and Presidentelect Joe Biden said that it could take years for most Americans to be vaccinated for the virus at current distribution rates.
Biden’s prediction of a grim winter appeared aimed at lowering public expectations that the pandemic would be over soon after he takes office on January 20, while also sending a message to Congress that his administration will want to significantly increase spending to expedite vaccine distribution, expand testing and provide funding to states to help reopen schools.
Biden, a Democrat, said about 2 million people had been vaccinated, well short of the 20 million that outgoing Republican President Donald Trump had promised by the end of the year. Biden defeated Trump in a November election.
‘‘As I long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,’’ Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware. At the current rate, ‘‘it’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.’’
Shortly after his remarks, Colorado’s Governor Jared Polis announced on Twitter that his state had discovered a case of a highly infectious coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, first detected in the United Kingdom.
Biden’s goal of ensuring that 100 million shots are administered by the end of his 100th day in office would mean ‘‘ramping up five to six times the current pace to 1 million shots a day,’’ Biden said, noting that would require Congress to approve additional funding.
‘‘Even with that improvement, even if we boost the speed of vaccinations to 1 million shots a day, it will still take months to have the majority of the United States’ population vaccinated,’’ he said. He predicted that the situation might not improve until ‘‘well into March’’.
Biden also said he planned to invoke the Defence Production Act, which grants the president the power to expand industrial production of products for national security.