Biden criticises slow rollout of Covid-19 jabs, promising 100 million vaccinated in first 100 days in office

Joe Biden arrives to speak at the Queen Theater after a COVID-19 briefing he held December 29, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware

Credit: AFP

Joe Biden has hit out at the Trump administration over the slow pace of Covid-19 vaccinations, warning it would take years to vaccine the US at the current rate.

The President-elect said on Tuesday he would speed up the process, promising 100 million Americans would be inoculated in his first 100 days in office.

Mr Biden, who takes over the job on January 20, said "it’s gonna take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people" at the pace it was recording now.

He vowed to ramp up the current speed of vaccinations five to six times to one million shots a day, telling reporters that he would use the Defense Production Act to accelerate production of vaccines and direct his team to prepare a "much more aggressive effort to get things back on track."

"I’m going to move heaven and earth to get us going in the right direction," he said during a press conference in his home state of Delaware.

Registered Nurse Patricia Cummings administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at the United Medical Center in DC 

Credit: Getty

Officials working on the government’s Operation Warp Speed said this month they planned to have 20 million doses of the vaccine distributed by the end of the year, down from the 100 million doses that President Donald Trump had projected in September would be shipped out by year’s end.

But while the federal government said Monday that 11.5 million doses of the vaccine have been sent to the states so far, only about 2 million people have gotten their first dose.

Alex Azar, Health and Human Services Secretary, predicted that every American will be able to get the vaccine by the end of June. The speed needed to do that is 3.5 million vaccinations a day.

Dr Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a world- renowned expert on the coronavirus pandemic, blamed the federal government for neglecting to work with states on the final steps of getting vaccines to the people.

“There appears to be no investment or plan in the last mile,” Dr Jha tweeted. 

The President-elect also implored Americans to wear masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and said he would impose a mandate on face covers in areas where the federal government has jurisdiction.

"We’re planning a whole-of-government effort and we’re going to work to set up vaccination sites and send mobile units to hard-to-reach communities," Mr Biden said. "We’re going to make sure vaccines are distributed equitably so every person can get one, no matter the color of their skin and where they live."

He voiced confidence of a return to normality in 2021 — but not immediately.

"We might not see improvement until we’re well into March as it will take time for our Covid response plan to begin to produce visible progress," Mr Biden said.

"The next few weeks and months are going to be very tough — a very tough period for our nation, maybe the toughest during this entire pandemic."