Next Week's Vaccination in US... Biden: "Will Address 'Vaccine Distrust'"

Illustration of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, a global pharmaceutical company. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Hana Na] President-elect Joe Biden of the United States announced that he will actively respond to alleviate the public's distrust and anxiety regarding the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine.

On the 12th (local time), Biden stated, "The United States needs presidential leadership now," and to dispel public anxiety about the COVID-19 vaccine, he appointed the nation's top infectious disease experts, according to The Washington Post (WP).

On the 7th, Biden retained Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and appointed Marcella Nunez-Smith, an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine, as chair of the COVID-19 Equity Task Force.

A spokesperson for Biden's transition team said regarding the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, "We are planning ways to communicate with the public in the most creative, transparent, and effective manner."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services plans to invest $250 million (approximately 273 billion KRW) over the next two years to encourage COVID-19 vaccination, and organizations such as the American Advertising Federation will coordinate with Biden to spend $50 million (approximately 54.6 billion KRW) starting next year.

Meanwhile, a significant number of Americans expressed reluctance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago's NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from the 3rd to the 7th, among 1,117 American adults, only 47% responded that they would get vaccinated, while 26% said they would not get vaccinated at all.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, pointed out that "supplying vaccines to communities alone is not enough; communities must accept the vaccine," emphasizing that vaccine distrust is the "final challenge" remaining before the end of COVID-19.

Earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on the 11th, and vaccinations are expected to begin as early as the beginning of next week.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.