A year after the WHO (World Health Organization) declared Covid-19 a global pandemic, US President Joe Biden is due to deliver his first national and prime-time speech this Thursday (11) to recall the death of over 500,000 Americans and present your government’s plan for the next phase of the crisis.
In a speech that is expected to last around 20 minutes, Biden intends to announce a roadmap for all adult Americans to be vaccinated against Covid-19 from May 1, focusing on priority lines and bringing states closer together. -United from “normal” in July. 4, when the country celebrates its independence.
“The fight is far from over. We still have a lot of work to do. But together, together, we can beat this pandemic, and we can all celebrate a more normal July 4th with family and friends, ”says Biden, Part 2 of the press release.
The President has thus advanced, once again, the deadline for the vaccination capacity of the entire American population. He had promised that would happen by the end of May, two months before the original deadline, and now he is stepping up dates again, a symbolic day for the course of the pandemic.
Biden promises the expansion of mass vaccination centers, essential to accelerate the pace of vaccination in the country, which now reaches 25% of the population.
Assistants say Biden is also expected to pay homage to the dead, say the pandemic has led the United States to the greatest operational challenge in history, and call on the people to be cautious, but hopefully grounded in moving forward. of immunization and the relief package approved by Congress. The $ 1.9 trillion measure was signed by Biden on Thursday, hours before the president appeared on television, and has funds for vaccinations, helping families and businesses, as well as preparing schools to go back to school. Face to face, among other measures.
Biden’s goal is to recall with regret the suffering of American families, hit by an unprecedented crisis, but, above all, the Democrat wants to show the way forward with some optimism.
A year ago, the United States recorded a thousand cases of Covid-19, today it is almost 30 million. Initially, the White House predicted 100,000 to 240,000 deaths as one of the most pessimistic scenarios of the year, but saw the victims exceed half a million in February 2021. Despite the unpleasant surprises, the pace of the US vaccination is positive and, together with the drop in deaths and hospitalizations, this has put the country on a more reliable path in recent weeks.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the United States has recorded an average of 60,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day – up from 260,000 in January – and the number of daily deaths is around 1,700. at two months, the victims went from 4,000 in 24 hours.
Even with the improvement, the plateau is still high and Biden urges Americans to continue wearing masks and respecting social distancing, to prevent the progress made so far from being lost.
The president’s main challenge in the coming months is to keep promises to a population tired of restrictive measures and hungry for the new normal.
After a slow start to vaccination (with an average of 900,000 vaccines applied per day between December and January), the United States moved to an average of 2 million vaccines administered daily – the record was broken on Saturday (6), with 2.9 million doses applied.
Research shows that Americans’ support for the vaccine has increased in recent months, and with the opening of mass vaccination centers across the country, the vaccination process has sped up dramatically.
The fear of the White House and health experts is that the population will relax in the face of the optimism created by the right numbers and stop complying with the rules that are required even for those who are immune when the country falls short. the so-called collective immunity. , which should only take place in the middle of the year.
The U.S. government has already purchased more doses than needed to immunize the entire population, and Biden said if there were any leftovers, they would be distributed to other countries that need the vaccine. The United States bought 300 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 300 million of those produced by Moderna – both require two applications – and 200 million from Johnson & Johnson’s, a single dose.