Joe Biden is moving to rapidly expand vaccination eligibility, warning Americans against complacency in the fight against the pandemic after a senior US health official said she felt a sense of “Impending doom” about surging infections. “Our work is from over. The war against Covid-19 is far from won,” Biden said. “We are in a life and death race with the virus . . . with vaccines there’s hope, but people are letting up on precautions which is a very bad thing,” he added.
His comments came after Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing on Monday that she feared the trajectory of infections was again taking a wrong turn, and warned against a premature loosening of socialdistancing practices. “We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope,” she said. “But right now, I’m scared.”
Walensky’s remarks will dash some of the optimism about the US’s ability to rapidly bring an end to the pandemic as the pace of vaccinations accelerate and new stimulus pumps more government funding into the healthcare response. Biden said he shared Walensky’s sentiment that the coronavirus picture remained “deadly serious”, and there could still be a “setback” in the vaccination campaign.
“Now’s not the time to let down [our guard], now’s not the time to celebrate,” he added. The president last week announced that he expected 200m Covid-19 jabs would be administered within his first 100 days in office, more