Biden To Mount Federal Vaccination Campaign

• Biden to mount federal vaccination campaign
• President-elect Joe Biden, inheriting responsibility for a pandemic that is unchecked and worsening after nearly a year, has outlined his plan to throw the weight of the federal government behind getting Americans vaccinated against the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, five days before his inauguration, described a sweeping initiative that includes funding for community vaccination centers and other ways to expand access to shots, invoking the Defense Production Act to increase manufacturing of vaccines and supplies.

The all-out federal effort is a departure from the Trump administration’s mostly hands-off approach, which has left it to states and localities to decide how to allocate and administer the vaccines, just as it shirked responsibility for testing Americans for the coronavirus.

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“The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure so far.

“You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation,” Biden said.

President Donald Trump has bequeathed Biden a public health crisis that has been getting worse, with little attention for months from the White House.

Combating the pandemic is Biden’s top priority once he is sworn in on Wednesday, and he sees ending the virus’ spread as a prerequisite for reviving the economy.

With the nation’s COVID-19 death toll nearing 400,000 and a new, more infectious strain of the virus spreading, Biden said after a briefing with advisers, “Truthfully? We remain in a very dark winter.”

While much hope has been raised by the emergence of multiple vaccines, Biden warned, saying: “Things will get worse before they get better.”

He is asking all Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency — a probably futile call given Trump’s politicisation of mask-wearing, which has left many supporters viewing it as an infringement of their freedom.