President Joe Biden delivered remarks on Tuesday mentioning the administration's continuous response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "Millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected, putting their communities at risk."
In his latest public plea for citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the President said that the delta variant of COVID-19, which is more transmissible and potentially more deadly, is already responsible for half of the cases in various parts of the country. After failing to meet his target of 70% of American adults obtaining at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by July 4, Biden urged Americans to be vaccinated.
Biden says being vaccinated is a patriotic action
He revealed that more than 182 million Americans had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 160 million receiving both doses by the end of the week. "If you're vaccinated, you're protected. If you're unvaccinated, you're not," Biden said, emphasizing that being vaccinated is a patriotic thing to do.
Biden said the federal government is deploying COVID-19 surge response teams, staffed with experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other agencies, to respond to future outbreaks expected among the unvaccinated. In an address from the White House South Auditorium, Biden said that the teams will assist states with specific issues to prevent, identify, and respond to the spread of the delta variant among unvaccinated Americans in places with poor vaccination rates.
In Kentucky, where only around 43% of residents are completely vaccinated, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell remarked shortly before Biden spoke, "There's no good reason not to be vaccinated," as per Voice of America News. McConnell made his statements in response to vaccine skeptics, saying that while vaccinations do not guarantee against COVID-19 infection, it "almost ensures you don't die from it if you get it."
Biden's new vaccination strategy
After falling short of his prior vaccination goal for July 4, President Joe Biden proposed a new targeted strategy to the national COVID-19 vaccine program. At a news conference Tuesday following a meeting with his COVID-19 response team, Biden listed five key objectives as part of the new approach.
Per The Center Square, increased vaccination outreach at pharmacies, family doctors' offices, and pediatricians' offices are the first three elements of the plan. People should be able to get the vaccination simply when picking up medications or going to a doctor's visit, according to Biden.
The plan's fourth component entails increasing the number of vaccination opportunities available to workers. To urge people to receive the vaccine, Biden's new strategy involves setting up additional mobile immunization clinics at major events and gathering spots.
After missing his goal of 70% of American adults taking one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by July 4, he has redoubled his efforts. This objective will be met within the next week, the President said. Biden also mentioned having response teams ready to cope with possible outbreaks in places with poor vaccination rates in his speech.
COVID-19 delta variant could increase cases in the US
According to the CDC, over 67% of American adults have had at least one vaccination, with 58% completely vaccinated as of Tuesday morning.
Biden had set a goal of vaccinating 70% of individuals in the United States with at least one dose by July 4. According to state health data, 79.7% of people 18 and older in Nassau County had received at least one vaccination shot as of Tuesday morning. In Suffolk, 72.4% of people Suffolk have got at least one dose.
Overall 72.6% of New York adults have gotten at least one dosage, and 66% of which are fully vaccinated. The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States climbed by 10% in seven days, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, with the delta variant accounting for a quarter of all new cases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the delta variant, which was originally discovered in India last December, has spread to 96 nations. "Delta is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far," WHO head, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week, NewDay reported.
Because of its high rate of transmissibility, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden's chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that the delta variant would likely cause an increase in COVID-19 cases in communities with lower vaccination rates.
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