COVID-19 vs. Biden: The First 100 Days

By Ramla Mohammed 

   In little over a year, the coronavirus has spread to 219 countries and territories, killing 2.4 million people and infecting 111 million people worldwide. In the United States, 20.6 million jobs have been lost, schools and businesses have been shut down, the economy is tanking, and 493,000 lives have been taken. Until recently, the possibility of going back to our lives pre-covid seemed to slip farther and farther away from our grasp. But with the new covid vaccine, there’s a greater chance of returning to normal and reversing the effects of the pandemic. President Biden has vowed to slow the spread of the coronavirus and increase the distribution of COVID vaccines. 

   Along with a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, Biden has detailed a five-step plan with a goal to distribute 100 million shots in his first 100 days of presidency (by April 30). He has dedicated $400 billion of his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan to pandemic relief, $50 billion to escalate COVID-19 testing, $20 billion to boost vaccination efforts, and additional funds to hire 100,000 public health workers.

   His first goal is to work closely with state governments to determine priority groups. As of now, those groups include adults aged 65 and older and essential frontline workers such as teachers and grocery clerks. Biden additionally aims to establish 100 federally supported vaccination centers across the country by the end of February and expand on Trump’s use of commercial pharmacies to increase access to vaccines. Finally, Biden plans to regularly update local and state governments about the supply of coronavirus vaccines. He has recently stated that, rather than saving vaccines to guarantee a second dose to the people who got the first dose, vaccines are to be administered as soon as they’re available 

   Currently, 81% of the vaccine doses delivered have been administered, with an average of 1.58 million vaccines given daily. It is estimated that it will take about nine months to fully vaccinate 75% of the United States population.

Last week, I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Coon, Mr. Sheehan, and two nurses from Nyack Ridge Hospital about their experiences with COVID-19 and the coronavirus vaccine. The most common symptom of the vaccine was a sore shoulder for a few days, although Mr. Coon also suffered from insomnia and fever-like temperatures. The nurses from Nyack Ridge recommend taking ibuprofen eight hours before and directly after getting the shot to avoid most of these symptoms (Please talk with your parents before taking any medication). 

   In terms of accessibility, it took Mr. Sheehan two weeks to find a site in the city, whereas it took the other three interviewees an average of two days to find a site in Rockland.

   Across the board, both Nyack teachers and the Nyack Ridge nurses agreed that, in order to return to any form of normalcy, people who are eligible for the vaccine should take it. Mr. Coon reminded us that even with the vaccine, “we are still going to have months of this to deal with, so we need to make sure to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and our friends.”