World Weekly丨The situation of the epidemic continues to worsen, when will the US's "predicament" be resolved?
According to the New York Times, on December 2nd, at least 2,885 people died of new coronary pneumonia in the United States.
This is the day with the largest number of deaths in a single day since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in the United States. As the year-end holiday is approaching, the situation in the United States has become more worrying.
At the same time, starting this week, the US government began to distribute vaccines to states.
New York State Governor Cuomo said that this will be the largest nationwide distribution of supplies in the United States since World War II.
On December 1, local time, the US Vaccination Advisory Committee under the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the vaccination schedule.
About 20 million medical workers and elderly people in nursing homes in the United States will become the first group of people in the United States to receive the vaccine. It is planned to complete the vaccination within this year; subsequently, teachers, police, food factory workers, etc. Key personnel, patients with high-risk diseases, and elderly people over 65 will be the second batch of people to receive the vaccine; between April and June next year, a total of about 330 million people in the United States will receive free vaccines.
US Secretary of Health Azar:
Within this month, we can ship the first batch of vaccines to the states, and we are very eager to meet Americans’ vaccination wishes.
At the end of November and early December, U.S. pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Modena applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization (EUA) of the new crown vaccine respectively. The Phase III clinical trial reports of the two pharmaceutical companies showed that their new crown vaccines The effectiveness of the vaccine is 95% and 94%, respectively.
According to a report in Fortune Weekly, in accordance with the FDA's approval process, Pfizer is expected to be officially authorized on December 10 and begin vaccinating priority groups as early as mid-month.
The vaccines produced by the two companies require two doses, about 3 weeks apart.
Ultimately, to achieve herd immunity, at least 70% of the population in society must have antibodies, which means that at least 462 million vaccines are needed in the United States.
Moreover, Pfizer vaccines scheduled to be distributed throughout the United States within this year have extremely stringent requirements for transportation and storage.
Vaccines need to be stored in an ultra-low temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius, sealed and wrapped in dry ice in an incubator. Dry ice must be added several times during the period.
Each incubator is like a temporary "refrigerator", each "refrigerator" can store about 1000-5000 doses of vaccines, and the shelf life of these vaccines in the box is 15 days, during which the box can be opened twice at most. More than 1 minute.
After being placed in an ordinary refrigerator, the shelf life of Pfizer vaccine is only 5 days.
Therefore, the total shelf life before and after the vaccine is only 20 days.
Moore, head of the American Immunization Action Alliance:
This vaccine distribution and vaccination procedure will be the most complicated in human history.
Radfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control:
The worst case is that we send vaccines to the states, but distribution has become a problem.
This week, multiple cargo and passenger aircraft of United Airlines (UA) and American Airlines (AA) were put into the delivery of vaccines.
NBC reporter:
In this Boeing 787, passenger seats and luggage racks have been removed in order to cram more containers.
Person in charge of the National Air Cargo Department:
Even if the temperature changes by a quarter of a degree, the alarm system will be activated and the staff will come to check, and we will ensure that the cargo arrives safely.
However, according to the “Wall Street Journal” report, the vaccine distribution work has just started. On December 3, Pfizer stated that due to problems in the raw material supply chain, the total 100 million vaccines originally planned to be supplied to the world had to be halved to 50 million pieces.
This means that Pfizer's original commitment to supply the United States with 20 million vaccines will be halved to 10 million.
US CNBC Investment Policy Analyst Adami:
I think the idea that people expect the United States to achieve herd immunity in the second quarter of next year is a bit far-fetched.
In addition to the worries about vaccine supply, there are also many difficulties in vaccine distribution.
Currently, Pfizer has rebuilt multiple vaccine storage centers in Texas, New Mexico, and Tennessee.
According to the agreed process, Pfizer only needs to deliver the vaccine to a designated receiving point in each state in accordance with the order requirements of each state, and the subsequent work needs to be completed by the state government.
On December 1, President-elect Biden’s new crown task force member Bright said that many states are facing huge financial and technical obstacles. It is very difficult to ensure the smooth completion of the "last mile" of vaccine delivery and final vaccination. Big.
For example, some states stated that they do not have the ultra-low temperature transportation and storage equipment needed to deliver vaccines.
Ropp, director of the School of Infectious Diseases at the University of Nebraska:
Some small hospitals in remote areas may not be able to receive these vaccines. These hospitals do not even have the equipment to store vaccines.
Even major states with relatively complete public health systems such as New York and Virginia find it difficult to distribute vaccines.
At the regular press conference on December 2, New York State Governor Cuomo made a request for funding from the federal government.
He said that in order to ensure that the vaccine is delivered on schedule, New York State needs about $1 billion for related publicity, equipment procurement, personnel training, and technical supervision.
New York State Governor Cuomo:
We need federal funding to implement this vaccine management project, and we need strong outreach work to make society accept vaccines and have confidence in vaccines.
Can I deploy the National Guard for this? Can I find ways to encourage people to vaccinate?
Of course, it depends on the funding.
According to the "New York Times" report, according to the earlier plan of the US Department of Health, the federal government will invest approximately US$8.4 billion to help states distribute vaccines by the end of this year.
However, due to the delay in passing the new federal rescue plan in Congress, subsidies to local governments have not been approved.
So far, the total amount of vaccine distribution allocated to the states is only about 20 million US dollars.
According to estimates by the US media CNBC, by the middle of next year, when the vaccine is available to ordinary Americans, the federal government will need to invest another 20-30 billion US dollars.
Moore, head of the American Immunization Action League: The
new crown epidemic has caused immeasurable losses. People have lost their jobs. What is more serious is that so many people have lost their lives. These are irreversible no matter how much money is spent.
Investing several hundred million yuan to build a sound public health system, so that people can be vaccinated smoothly and put an end to the epidemic, will become our most cost-effective investment.
On the other hand, although US health officials have repeatedly publicly emphasized that the two vaccines that have been submitted to the FDA for emergency authorization are very safe, but according to the data released by the polling agency Gallup at the end of September, only about Half of the American respondents said they are willing to be vaccinated.
Also this week, an updated economic rescue plan was submitted to the U.S. Congress, which included approximately $16 billion in federal funds, which was planned to be used for vaccine distribution in various states.
But this bailout plan, which is generally optimistic by the outside world, was once again opposed by the Republican leader of the Senate, McConnell.
CBS commented that in the past four months or so, various versions of rescue plans have appeared in the US Congress. The common point is that it is difficult to obtain the support of both parties.
On December 1, local time, US President-elect Biden formally nominated former Federal Reserve Chairman Yellen as US Secretary of the Treasury.
Yellen said in her speech that day that the new crown epidemic is seriously dragging down the recovery of the U.S. economy. She also pointed out that the U.S. economic recovery is showing a trend of extreme inequality and urged Congress to reach a consensus on a new round of rescue plans as soon as possible to help. The American people survived the storm.
Yellen, nominee for the Secretary of the Treasury:
We are once again experiencing a historic crisis. The superposition of the new crown epidemic and the economic downturn has dealt a serious blow to many people, and the impact on socially disadvantaged groups is extremely serious.
According to data recently released by Feeding America, the largest public interest organization in the United States aimed at eliminating hunger, affected by the epidemic, during this year’s Christmas and New Year holidays, about 50.4 million Americans will be getting food In terms of lack of security, it accounts for about one-sixth of the total population of the United States. Compared with the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007, the situation is more severe.
Volunteer:
Happy Thanksgiving.
On November 26, on the past Thanksgiving Day, the number of people received by many food relief stations in New York, California, Texas, Florida and other places broke the record since the outbreak.
Reporter:
The team next to me is only a small part. The waiting team is several miles long and takes up the entire expo.
In these long waiting queues, nearly half of them received relief food for the first time.
American people:
You don't think that you will lose your job and wait in line to get relief food, but it is really unpredictable.
The person in charge of the "Feed America" organization said that as the Christmas and New Year holidays approach, there will be more people in the United States who need to receive relief food, but whether they can still receive it, I am afraid this will be a question mark.
On December 31, with the expiration of the last round of the federal bailout plan in the US Congress, the hundreds of millions of dollars in aid funds allocated to the US food aid project also came to an end.
According to CBS estimates, this will reduce the total food supply of food relief stations across the United States by about half.
Not only that, if the two parties in Congress fail to agree on a new round of bailout plans, approximately 21 million Americans will lose unemployment benefits during Christmas and New Year, 40 million American tenants cannot afford to pay their rent, and 3.3 million families cannot Repay the mortgage on time.
Former US CDC official Bessel:
If we don’t rush to send money to the people, if we don’t prohibit landlords from evictions, and don’t stop banks from taking back mortgaged properties, we will see tens of millions of people raging in the epidemic this winter Sometimes homeless.
We will also see that it is unreasonable and contrary to conscience that people have to go to work even if they are sick in order to make ends meet and pay rent.
In sharp contrast, according to the "Wall Street Journal" report, in the third quarter, the U.S. stock and real estate markets "increased."
Scott Scott, senior economist at the American Institute of Economic Policy:
Those who are in the upper echelons of society, those who can work remotely, and those who can do business through ZOOM, they will not be affected.
In fact, not only did the income of this group of people not decrease, but because of the decrease in expenditure, they actually saved a lot of money.
According to data released by Freddie Mac, a US residential mortgage agency, under the influence of economic stimulus policies such as the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut, the US real estate mortgage interest rate reached a new low in nearly 50 years in the third quarter, and many investors have seized it. Time to buy a home.
According to statistics from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in the third quarter, the average house price in urban areas across the United States showed an upward trend. Among them, the average house price in 117 metropolitan areas rose by double digits.
In September, the nationwide housing transaction volume exceeded 6.5 million units, an increase of approximately 21% compared to the same period last year.
Al Jazeera reporter:
So, those who have stocks and real estate in their hands are doing pretty well, but what about the others?
Some economists believe that this is the most unfair economic recovery in American history.
Look at your wallet, some are happy and some are worried.
In the U.S. Congress, all kinds of wrangling around the new bailout plan continue.
According to the CBS report, there are currently three versions of the rescue plan in the US Congress.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives and Democrat Pelosi led a bailout package worth about $2.2 trillion; a small-scale bailout package worth about $500 billion led by Senate Republican Leader McConnell; and several others. The Democratic and Republican moderate senators have drawn up a "cross-party" rescue plan worth about US$908 billion.
Among them, the third version of the rescue plan was originally the most favored by the outside world.
This is because it not only includes unemployment benefits and local government assistance (1880+1600), which are highly concerned by the Democratic Party, but also the small business wage protection program (2880) promoted by the Republican Party (2880) and vaccine grants to support states (160).
But it does not include the content of issuing checks directly to the people in the previous round of relief plans.
However, just a few hours after the "cross-party version" of the rescue plan was proposed on December 1, Senate Republican Leader McConnell rejected the plan and "swept responsibility" to the US President. Rumpu.
Senate Republican Leader McConnell:
We have no time to waste, we only have a few weeks left.
Obviously, the rescue plan does require the cooperation of the two parties, but it also needs the president's final signature.
McConnell hinted that even if the two houses reach an agreement on the bill, Trump will not finally sign it.
At the same time, McConnell strongly recommended his own version of the rescue plan that day.
Because it does not include the assistance to local governments requested by the Democrats and reduces the deadline for unemployment benefits, this plan was once evaluated as shameful by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Pelosi.
According to the Washington Post, the Democrats and Republicans have their own plans.
The Democrats want a huge rescue plan to ease the pressure on the people’s lives. At the same time, they also hope that the rescue plan can help the US economy embark on a rapid recovery track after Biden officially assumes the presidency of the United States.
In the Republican Party’s view, since Trump has no hope of re-election, the current bailout plan should only be used as a targeted "stoppap measure". After the vaccine is distributed in the middle of next year, more funding will be discussed.
On December 2, local time, Trump posted a 46-minute video speech on Facebook, calling it "the most important speech in life."
US President Trump:
This may be the most important speech in my life. I would like to update this on my ongoing efforts to expose major fraud in the general election.
The election day on November 3 is simply protracted. We usually call it "election day." Now election day has become election week and election month. During this period, various weird things have been unfolding one after another.
The Associated Press summarized Trump's speech. The core content is: fraud in the election.
As for the relief plan that American society is most concerned about, Trump has not mentioned a word.
"The New York Times" commented on this that, compared with the rescue plan, Trump sees more important things that need to be dealt with urgently.
On November 25, Trump pardoned his aide and former US national security adviser Mike Flynn.
Flynn had been under investigation by the FBI earlier for allegedly giving false testimony in the "TongRumen" investigation.
The New York Times believes that Flynn's pardon marks that Trump will seize the time to launch a series of amnesty activities in the final weeks of his presidency.
American NBC anchor:
President Trump may soon exercise his power of pardon in an unprecedented way.
According to informed sources close to Trump, Trump is considering an "early pardon" for many of his family members.
These include: Trump's eldest son Trump Jr., second son Eric Trump, eldest daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Kushner.
According to ABC reports, Giuliani, Trump’s legal adviser, has also personally asked Trump for a pardon recently.
American ABC reporter:
Let’s get a clear picture of the list of people Trump considered for pardons before leaving office. These people have not even been prosecuted, and Trump has already distributed to his family, friends, and even himself exempt from prison. Amnesty decree.
The power of pardon is a special power granted to the president by the US Constitution.
Generally speaking, the pardoned are those who have been prosecuted by the federal justice system.
The current heated discussion in the US media is whether Trump can really pardon himself.
As of December 4, local time, according to the "Washington Post" statistics, 275,000 Americans have died of new coronary pneumonia.
On December 2, Biden issued a warning that if no immediate action is taken, the number of deaths will double within a month.
U.S. President-elect Biden:
I don’t want to scare anyone here, but the fact is very likely that between now and January, another 250,000 Americans will die. Have you heard that?
In the next 50 to 70 days, people’s lives will be extremely difficult unless both houses of Congress take action and pass related bills.
December 11, which is next Friday, will be the last opportunity for Congress to vote to pass a new round of bailout plans and spending bills. If the two parties still cannot reach a consensus on this day, the United States will have an "embarrassing" Christmas and New Year.
Not only will a large number of people lose federal aid, but the federal government will once again fall into a "shutdown". Worse still, if federal funds are not in place, it will also delay the release of the new crown vaccine, causing the United States to pay greater lives and economic costs.