US Government Looking To Significantly Ramp Up Vaccine Effort

The U.S. government is planning to significantly ramp up its efforts to vaccinate the nation’s population against the virus that causes COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced plans to buy an additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna, which should be enough to vaccine 300 million Americans. The administration is also increasing the amount of vaccine shipped to states by about 16 percent over the next month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The additional 100 million doses will raise the total number of doses purchased by the government to 600 million from 400 million. Each person will require two doses of vaccine to be effectively vaccinated against the coronavirus.

There are currently around 331 million people living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The government would not need to buy vaccine for all 331 million at this time as it is not approved for use in children under 16 years of age.

The administration also plans to help states better plan their vaccination programs by giving them a three-week heads-up on their estimated vaccine allotments. Governors have complained that fluctuating allocations were complicating state vaccine efforts, making it difficult to schedule appointments and staff vaccination sites, according to the Journal.

As of next week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will increase state allocations to at least 10 million doses per week, up from 8.6 million. That rate will continue for the next three weeks, the Journal reported.

President Biden has also invoked the Defense Production Act to help increase vaccine production. The government also plans to set up 100 vaccination sites around the country and send mobile units into rural and underserved communities. The vaccine will be made available in pharmacies next month.

The government is also planning a national campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated amid lingering public skepticism about the safety of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, several of the nation’s top executives have reached out to state and federal officials to offer their companies’ services to help speed the vaccination effort, including the CEOs of Honeywell, Atrium Health and Starbucks.