Where We Are With the COVID Vaccine in 2021 — And What to Expect Next: Part II

We are currently in the midst not only of a deadly pandemic, but also, history’s most ambitious vaccination campaign. In the first part of this series, we examined the latest developments with the vaccine’s rollout. Now, we’ll highlight expectations for when President-elect Joe Biden takes office — and whether his plan for the vaccine is realistic.

Picking Up the Pace of Vaccination Under a New Biden Administration

The future Biden administration has promised to vaccinate 100 million Americans within the first 100 days of taking office. Currently, however, key transition officials disagree about how and whether this objective can actually be achieved. Some have gone so far as to refer to it as a herculean effort.

Meanwhile, infectious disease expert and incoming chief coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci believes that it’s possible to meet the extremely ambitious goal of vaccinating 100 million people by the end of April. If he’s correct, we could be in the final stretch of the pandemic by that time.

How President-Elect Biden Will Tackle Top Vaccination Challenges

To ensure that people are vaccinated quickly, the Biden administration intends to implement new strategies for streamlining distribution. In hard-hit rural areas, for example, mobile vaccination units should improve ease of access. Furthermore, new federal sites will be established to administer a higher volume of vaccines.

Another key element of the Biden plan: releasing all doses of the vaccine, rather than keeping some in reserve for those in need of the second dose. This is controversial, for, while health experts believe that some protection is needed while COVID rates and deaths surge across the country, the vaccine works best on its intended schedule of two doses spaced out by a month.