Joe Biden touts possibility of immunising Americans against COVID-19 by late Dec-early Jan

US President-elect Joe Biden has said that the country was on track to begin its immunization process against coronavirus by late December-early January. Highlighting that America was at war with the virus, the democrat asserted that there had been “significant record-breaking progress in developing a vaccine”. This comes as three leading pharmaceutical brands Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca have declared the success of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

 "There's been significant record-breaking progress made recently in developing a vaccine and several of these vaccines look extraordinarily effective. It happens to be on track for the first immunisation to begin by late December-early January," Biden said at Delaware on the occasion of Thanksgiving.

'We've fought a war with COVID-19'

He added that there was a need to put in place a distribution plan to get the entire country immunized as soon as possible, adding that it would take time. Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, the 77-year-old said that it had not only cost millions of lives but also caused “pain, loss and frustration” to people. However, he said although people were growing “weary of the virus” they will have to remember that the war was with the virus and not with each other.

"This is the moment where we need to steel our spines, redouble our efforts, and recommit ourselves to the fight. Let's remember that we are all in this together. We still have months of this battle ahead of us," he added.

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As more and more COVID-19 vaccine candidates are showing promising results, White House vaccine chief Moncef Slaoui had also said that first Americans could receive the vaccine dosage ‘as early as the second week of December’. While talking to a media outlet, Slaoui also said that based on the plans of the US government, the entire population that need to be vaccinated for life to return to normalcy is expected to take place in May. He had told another media outlet that with the levels of efficacy that have been shown by both vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, at least 70 per cent of the immunised population would pave the way for ‘true herd immunity’ to take place. 

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