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Biden sets bold timeline for a return to normal life

Biden sets bold timeline for a return to normal life

Biden sets bold timeline for a return to normal life
Jan 27, 2021 2 mins, 32 secs

Should he fall short, the credibility of his new presidency will take a serious hit, that would not only prolong the crisis into another fall and winter but would also hamper his ambitious program on other key issues.

In a show of presidential power six days into his term, Biden sought to galvanize the action of federal, state and local governments into the kind of unified, national effort that had up until now been lacking during this once-in-century crisis.

"To a nation waiting for action, let me be clearest on this point: Help is on the way," Biden said Tuesday, after announcing the purchase of another 200 million vaccine doses and a hike in distribution to states within days.

In some ways, Biden's pledge included some political sleight of hand, since it will not get vaccine supply anywhere near levels demanded by the states in the short-term and he admitted deaths could hit half a million next month.

Tuesday's announcement was both administrative and political.

It offered a rare morale boost after nearly a year of lockdowns, social distancing, separated families and sickness and death, especially coming in the darkest days of one of the grimmest winters in years.

"Let's say we are able to get 300 million people vaccinated by the summer, life changes dramatically and we get out of this situation we are living in where the pandemic dominates our lives," Dr.

And of course, even with a 16% increase, vaccine distribution will fall massively short of the number states need to make a dent in the crisis any time soon.

There has so far been no comment on Biden's announcement of the purchase of 200 million more doses by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the two firms confirmed that have received emergency authorization for their vaccines.

Cleaning up the messaging

Biden's announcement on Tuesday also represented some political triage, given some messy and sometimes conflicting messaging about targets and vaccine supply in recent days by the President and his staff.

While professing optimism on Tuesday, Biden was careful to temper expectations, warning: "We didn't get into this mess overnight and it's going to take months for us to turn things around."

His comments reflected the political hazard inherent in setting timelines and making predictions about a pernicious and unpredictable pandemic, especially in the middle of a race between the mass deployment of vaccines and mutations of the virus that could challenge their effectiveness.

And Biden's pledge, that follows criticism that his promise of 100 million administrated vaccine doses in his first 100 days was insufficiently ambitious, is also dependent on many other factors beyond his direct control.

Experience has shown that having vaccine available does not mean it is being administered.

Such data has led some top health experts in recent days to question whether at some point the key problem will not be a shortage of vaccines but a deficit of willing recipients.

"Day Seven: we have found a way to secure vaccine supply adequate to provide a dose for EVERY adult by summer," White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted on Tuesday.

Summarized by 365NEWSX ROBOTS

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