Democratic candidate Joe Biden promised on Friday, October 23 that the vaccine against Covid-19 would be “Free for everyone” as part of his national plan to fight the epidemic, if he were elected president of the United States. “Once we have a safe and effective vaccine, it will have to be free for everyone, whether you [ayez une assurance-santé] or not “, he said, presenting in Wilmington (Delaware) his project for “Get ahead of the virus”, eleven days before the presidential election.
Outgoing President Donald Trump, lagging behind in the polls, also wants the future vaccine against Covid-19, which could be ready in the coming weeks, to be free.
Democrats blame the Republican billionaire for not having put in place a strong federal response to the epidemic, which has claimed more than 223,000 lives in the United States. “The Covid-19 exceeds anything we have faced in our recent history and it does not show signs of slowing down”, said Mr. Biden, pointing out that “The virus is getting stronger in practically all states” Americans.
“We have been in this crisis for almost eight months and the president still has no plan”, said the former vice president of Barack Obama. “He abandoned, he abandoned you, he abandoned your family and he abandoned America”, he said in a televised speech. If elected, Mr. Biden pledges to put ” at once “ in place a national strategy “To finally get ahead of the virus and start living again”. He would like to consult the governors of the 50 states during the transition period, before the investiture (scheduled for January 20).
Vaccine race
Once in power, he would call on Congress in particular to vote a major law to finance the fight against the coronavirus and would establish the compulsory wearing of masks in federal buildings and in transport between States.
The clinical trial of the experimental vaccine against Covid-19 developed by the AstraZeneca group with the British University of Oxford has resumed in the United States – the only country where it was still suspended following the onset of a disease in a participant more than six weeks ago, the pharmaceutical group announced on Friday.
The trial was suspended worldwide on September 6, but resumed after a few days in the UK and in the following weeks in South Africa, Brazil and Japan, with various health authorities deeming the vaccine safe. as the disease is apparently unrelated to the vaccine. This vaccine project is one of the most advanced in the world, one of ten to be tested on tens of thousands of volunteers in a so-called “phase 3” trial, with American, Chinese and Russian projects.
In the United States, the two candidates in pole position to obtain a green light from the Medicines Agency (Food and Drug Administration, FDA) are those of Pfizer and Moderna: the two American companies plan to apply for an authorization in the second fortnight in November; the FDA did not say how soon it would issue its opinion.
