Biden to invoke Defense Production Act to speed up Covid vaccine rollout, reports say

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Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed up the production of the coronavirus vaccines once he takes office in January, according to a member of his pandemic advisory team.  

Dr Celine Gounder, a member of Mr Biden’s Covid-19 board, told CNBC on Monday that the president intended to enact the wartime production law.  

“You will see him invoking the Defense Production Act," she said. “The idea there is to make sure the personal protective equipment, the test capacity and the raw materials for the vaccines are produced in adequate supply.”

The law allows the president to force companies to prioritise the manufacturing of goods needed for national security purposes.  

Pfizer, the manufacturer of the first widely available coronavirus vaccine, reportedly went to the Trump administration in September seeking assistance to secure production supplies. The New York Times reported that the Trump administration did not respond to the request.  

Since then, the US government has worked with Pfizer to secure more doses of the vaccine. The company and the government have worked out a deal which includes the invocation of the Defense Production Act to "help Pfizer get better access to around nine specialized products it needs to make the vaccine."

Speeding up production would help address the disparity between the vaccination timeline proposed by the Trump administration and reality; the White House claimed there would be 20 million inoculations in December. Thus far there have been just under 2 million Americans vaccinated.  

Moncef Slaoui, Mr Trump's coronavirus czar, acknowledged the delay during a press conference on Wednesday.  

“Exactly how fast the ramp-up of immunisations, shots in arms, is slower than we thought it would be,” he said. “And as I told you earlier, we’re here to help the states to accelerate appropriately."

Public and private sector leaders are looking to the vaccine as a pathway towards restoring normality and repairing the struggling US economy.  

Despite the delays and isolated mishaps, some health professionals have praised the efforts of both the government and private companies in overseeing the vaccine distribution.  

Isaac Bogoch, a University of Toronto infectious disease specialist, told CNBC that the speed at which vaccinations are being delivered to pharmacies and hospitals has been "extremely impressive."  

“It looks like one of the bigger hurdles to vaccine efforts in the United States will be hesitancy, whereas the hurdles elsewhere in the world will be access to vaccine,” he said.