Biden unveils COVID-19 vaccine plan with focus on mass inoculations

President-elect Joe Biden delivered a message on his vaccine plan Friday: Federal help is on the way.

The Biden administration plans to use federal resources including the Federal Emergency Management Agency to launch new mass vaccination sites, Biden said Friday while laying out the details. The administration also plans to expand state and local immunization efforts across the country, including in pharmacies and community health centers.

Federally Qualified Health Centers serve more than 30 million patients each year, including many people of color and rural communities. Under the Biden administration’s plan, health centers will be able to directly access vaccine supply where needed.

“We are in a race against time,” a senior Biden transition official told reporters Thursday. “We know that health care professionals, essential workers, states, tribes and our public health infrastructure have been asked to do too much with too little.”

Biden’s plan will include partnering with states and local providers to launch community vaccination centers around the country and deploy mobile vaccination units in underserved and hard-to-reach areas.

It also focuses on better communication with states, so state and local leaders fully understand their vaccine allocations and timely delivery of their ordered doses.