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| USA TODAY
President Biden calls for schools to reopen and COVID-19 help at City Hall
President Joe Biden pleaded for his $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package during his first official trip outside of Washington as president.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden is back on the road, visiting Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing plant near Kalamazoo, Mich., On Friday, where he will continue to advocate for his nearly 2,000 relief program billion dollars COVID-19 as Democrats prepare to pass it through. Congress.
The trip, Biden’s second visit to a politically crucial Midwestern state this week, highlights Pfizer’s central hub where millions of the country’s first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine rolled off the production line in December. The president also met with workers who produce the vaccine. The trip was originally scheduled for Thursday but has been postponed.
The President, accompanied by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients, toured the “Freezer Farm,” a warehouse containing 350 ultra-cold freezers containing 360,000 doses of vaccine each, according to Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said on Friday they were seeking an update to their emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration that would allow their COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at normal freezing temperatures, which could ease shipping restrictions and make the vaccine larger. available. Currently, the vaccine must be stored between -112 ° F and -76 ° F and is shipped in a special thermal container filled with dry ice to keep it at its ultra-cold temperatures.
White House COVID-19 response team officials said on Wednesday that the United States was on track to have enough vaccines available for 300 million Americans “by the end of July.” echoing comments Biden made at a CNN town hall on Tuesday.
The White House also announced Wednesday that it is allocating $ 1.6 billion to expand testing to schools and underserved populations, boost manufacturing of testing supplies, and increase funding to track emerging COVID-19 variants. in all the countries.
The increase in vaccinations is a key part of Biden’s vast COVID-19 relief program, which includes money to reopen schools and businesses and distribute $ 1,400 checks to low-income Americans. The president used his first trips outside the Washington area and his home state of Delaware to present Americans with the stimulus package, to which Republicans in Congress backed down by $ 1.9 trillion.
First COVID-19 vaccines leave Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo
First COVID-19 vaccines leave Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo
Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press
“Now is the time we should be spending. Now is the time to go big,” Biden said of his proposal, known as the US stimulus package, at CNN’s town hall on Tuesday in Milwaukee. .
The president and his aides rejected the Republican crackdown, saying the administration was keeping its promise of a bipartisan government thanks to the proposal’s broad support among Americans.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 68% of Americans support passage of the legislation, including 37% of Republican voters, 68% of Independents and 97% of Democrats.
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And it’s no coincidence that Biden has decided to pitch his sales pitch in Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that helped him win the White House and that will be essential for Democrats midway through 2022, according to Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic strategist who now runs the Dornsife Center. for the political future at the University of Southern California.
Shrum pointed to a Morning Consult poll showing Biden’s 62% approval rating among registered voters.
“It’s very high for a president in this polarized era and I think they want to continue to build on that,” he said. “They are not waiting. They must act.”
The Morning Consult poll was mentioned by Senior White House adviser Mike Donilon, who argued in a memo obtained by Axios that GOP opposition to Biden’s bailout is hurting the party’s credibility.
“Given the character of the Republican Party right now and the fact that you have about 20% of Republicans who are apparently not happy with the leadership of the party, you’re not going to do well halfway through,” Shrum said. . “The way for Biden and the Democrats to win these people over is to do the right thing now and beat the virus by organizing a national response.”
But Biden’s presentation – made while Congress is on recess – takes place against the clock. The last round of stimulus relief passed by Congress in January is due to expire on March 14. The current bill makes its way through Congress under a special budget procedure that allows Democrats to pass it without Republican support from the Senate. House Democrats have said they plan to pass the bill next week.
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USA TODAY
Meanwhile, the United States continues to ramp up vaccinations, but distribution has been hampered by logistical hurdles, including supply shortages, appointment cancellations, and severe winter conditions this week that are expected to delay vaccine shipments to some states, according to White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients.
Zients told state governors on Tuesday that the government would begin distributing 13.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine per week, a 57% increase from when Biden took office last month.
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He attributed the increased vaccine doses to states to both planned production increases by vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna as well as actions taken by the administration, including invoking the Defense Production Act, a wartime authority that can stimulate commercial production of needed supplies, in this case more vaccines and tests.
The 1,300-acre plant in Michigan is the largest manufacturing site in Pfizer’s network and is the only finishing plant in the United States that makes the Pfizer vaccine, according to the company.
As of Thursday, nearly 29 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered nationwide, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
Contribution: Maureen Groppe and Elizabeth Weisse
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