07.07.2021 – 08:32
As 10 US states experience an increase in coronavirus cases, President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that “millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected and, because of this, their communities are at risk.”
In his latest televised call for people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the president said the delta version of the virus, which is more contagious and potentially more dangerous, is already responsible for half the cases in many parts of the country. .
In particular, the states of Kansas and Missouri are reporting double-digit increases in the percentage of infections due to the delta variant.
To respond to further projected outbreaks among the unvaccinated, President Biden said the federal government is mobilizing COVID-19 response teams, staffed by experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. of Diseases and other agencies.
These teams will help countries with “special problems [për] “Preventing, detecting and responding to the spread of the delta variant among unvaccinated people in communities with low vaccination rates,” said President Biden in a White House speech.
“We can not congratulate ourselves now,” the president warned.
Vaccine skeptics
Shortly before President Biden spoke, Republican Senate opposition leader Mitch McConnell said in Kentucky, where only about 43 percent of residents were completely inoculated, “there’s no good reason not to get vaccinated.”
Addressing vaccine skeptics, McConnell said that while vaccines do not guarantee that someone will not be infected with COVID-19, “it almost guarantees that you will not die from the disease if you do.”
Vaccination reluctance, especially among Republicans, is thought to be the reason why President Biden’s administration failed to achieve its goal of 70% of American adults being at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 by July 4.
Only 45% of Republicans received their first dose, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Some minority groups are also delayed in vaccination.
The president said Tuesday that within a few days there will be “160 million Americans fully vaccinated, up from approximately 3 million when we took office five months ago.”
According to the CDC, about 67% of Americans had received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 47% had received two doses shortly before Independence Day.
There is a strong regional contrast in vaccination rates. In the Northeast, more than half of adults are fully vaccinated.
In contrast, Southern states have poor results. In Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, 35% or less of adults have received full doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although not in all parts of the United States, there is a desperate demand for these doses in other countries.
Donation of vaccines
President Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced the delivery of Moderna vaccine doses to Guatemala and Vietnam, as it failed to meet its target of donating 80 million doses to the rest of the world by the end of June.
All doses have been allocated, but there have been logistical challenges, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said when asked Tuesday about the absences.
“Sometimes we have to work through legal obstacles, we have to work through regulatory obstacles. There are problems with the materials needed to deliver these vaccines. “And there are even refrigeration problems that are also needed,” Psaki said during a White House daily conference ahead of the president’s comments.
“Countries must be ready to welcome them on the ground. And there is no previous precedent for this. “So, of course, there are lessons we have learned,” she said.
At a time when supplies of vaccines are still limited, there is a need to “understand what we have an oversupply for and how quickly we can export those doses. “And in many cases, they could be mRNA vaccines, like Pfizer or Moderna, compared to Johnson & Johnson, or even AstraZeneca, of which we have a supply level in the US even though they are not yet authorized here.” . Krishna Udayakumar, director of the Global Center for Health Innovation at Duke University. “It takes a great level of planning at the national level and national ownership for this to be successful.”
The 80 million doses promised by the United States, out of the 1 billion promised by the G-7a, will be insufficient for global demand.
Only about 1% of the population in Africa has received a dose, according to the World Health Organization.
“We have engaged in the United States and the G-7 and other EU countries, the global supply of exactly what is needed to end this pandemic,” said Tom Hart, acting chief executive of the ONE campaign. , a group that fights extreme poverty and preventable diseases.
“We need 11 billion doses to achieve global herd immunity,” Hart added.
