By Nick Murray
Following President Biden’s inauguration on January 20, he immediately set to improving the process of designing, manufacturing and distributing the Coronavirus vaccine. Under the Trump administration, vaccine production was inhibited by a constant flow of misinformation and active obstruction by those around the former president including the former president supporting unproven light therapy and injection of Lysol as treatments for the virus. Unfortunately, such obstruction coupled with a nonexistent federal response to the pandemic resulted in the preventable deaths of over 500 thousand Americans.
Throughout Biden’s campaign one of his primary talking points was his plan to immediately implement measures to prevent the spread of the virus and streamline vaccine distribution. The initial goal according to the Biden admin planned for 100 million vaccines distributed within Biden’s first 100 days. Using the Moderna, Pfizer, and later the Johnson and Johnson vaccines, the government increased vaccinations and orchestrated more vaccination sights to be established. While the goal seemed unlikely in the beginning, the United States has vastly exceeded 100 million doses in Biden’s first 100 days. As a result, the administration raised the goal to 200 million vaccines administered. At the time this article is being written, the United States has currently administered 198 million doses and will have accomplished the goal by its publication. Thanks to the United States’s wild success in administering shots, President Biden has seen a steady increase in his approval rating as well.
Unfortunately, vaccinations using the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine have temporarily been halted due to a very small number of women experiencing blood clotting issues following vaccination. Currently, there are no studies on possible links between the clotting and the vaccine with only 6 women having reported cases so far. Despite the low risk, both the FDA and CDC have recommended halting the distribution of the J&J vaccine. Ultimately, the Biden administration has been wildly successful in rapidly distributing the coronavirus vaccine having surpassed their goal twice and one can only look forward to the potential of returning to some semblance of normalcy in the future.