Biden will send in FEMA, National Guard to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination rates

Biden will send in FEMA, National Guard
to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination rates


By Ebony Bowden

January 15, 2021
New York Post

President-elect Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a broad plan to accelerate the sluggish level of state by state COVID-19 vaccination rates by employing FEMA and the National Guard in a bid to make good on his promise to deliver 100 million jabs in his first 100 days in office.

The main pillars of Biden’s plan include the creation of mobile vaccination units to help inoculate communities in hard-to-reach areas and encouraging states to vaccinate anyone over the age of 65.

In a bid to get as many Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible, the Biden administration will also call up the National Guard and FEMA, the federal government’s lead disaster response agency, to stand up an initial 100 federally-supported community vaccination centers around the nation.

In a speech in Wilmington, Del., on Friday afternoon, Biden laid the blame for the slow rollout at the feet of state authorities.

“Implementation has been too rigid and confusing. If you were to ask most people today, they couldn’t tell you who exactly is getting vaccinated,” Biden said. “What they do know is there are tens of millions of doses of vaccine sitting unused in freezers around the country.”

For example, New York officials have been under increasing fire for the sluggish pace of getting shots into arms.

Many at-risk New Yorkers seniors have been forced to endure an agonizing wait for the miracle shot before Mayor Bill de Blasio sounded the alarm on Friday that the Big Apple is set to run out of coveted vaccine doses by next week.

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