US could soon vaccinate 1 million people per day; pandemic haunts new year as virus outpaces vaccine
The U.S. could soon be giving at least a million COVID-19 vaccinations a day despite the sluggish start, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, even as he warned of a dangerous next few weeks as the coronavirus surges.
The slow pace is frustrating health officials and a desperate public alike, with only about a third of the first supplies shipped to states used as of Tuesday morning, just over three weeks into the vaccination campaign.
“Any time you start a big program, there’s always glitches. I think the glitches have been worked out,” the nation’s top infectious disease expert told The Associated Press.
Vaccinations have already begun speeding up, reaching roughly half a million injections a day, he pointed out.
Now, with the holidays over, “once you get rolling and get some momentum, I think we can achieve 1 million a day or even more,” Fauci said. He called President-elect Joe Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days “a very realistic, important, achievable goal.”
In other developments:
- January is beginning as a grim month around the globe as the coronavirus resurges and reshapes itself from Britain to Japan to California. It’s filling hospitals anew and shutting down livelihoods as governments impose new lockdowns to keep people apart and stop the spread.
- Britain is facing a long, bleak winter as cold, wet weather and a more contagious variant of the coronavirus put unprecedented strain on the nation’s hospitals and force record numbers of patients to wait 12 hours or more, sometimes on ambulance gurneys, before receiving treatment.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, former U.N. Ambassador and civil rights leader Andrew Young and former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan got vaccinated against COVID-19 in Georgia on Tuesday, hoping to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe.
- The head of the World Health Organization says he is disappointed Chinese officials haven’t finalized the permissions to allow a team of experts into China to examine the origins of COVID-19.
- Two days after celebrating their return to the NFL playoffs, the Cleveland Browns were knocked flat. COVID-19 will keep coach Kevin Stefanski and at least two players, one a Pro Bowler, out of the team’s first playoff game since the 2002 season.
- College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said Tuesday the national championship game between Alabama and Ohio State is still a go for Monday night amid a report that the Buckeyes are having COVID-19 issues.
- The 2021 Grammy Awards will no longer take place this month in Los Angeles and will broadcast in March due to a recent surge in coronavirus cases and deaths.
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