The Heat: Efforts to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations

The Heat

A health care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Rome, Italy, January 27, 2021. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Vaccines are considered the best weapon to fight the pandemic. U.S. President Joe Biden is promising to ramp up efforts. He promised to have nearly the entire U.S. population vaccinated by September. The United States has recorded one out of every four confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world. In the United Kingdom, the number of coronavirus related deaths has reached 100,000. Fearing the spread of the variant in the UK, European countries stepped up security protocols. The Netherlands imposed a curfew for the first time since World War II, which has led to violent protests against the lock-down.

Joining the discussion:

  • Maria Paula Carvalho is a journalist and author based in Paris, France.
  • Konstantin Severinov is the principal investigator at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and a consultant to the Russian government.
  • Gustavo Ribeiro is the founder of the Brazilian Report.
  • Benjamin Neuman is a professor of biological sciences at Texas A&M University.
  • Joseph Williams is a senior news editor for U.S. News & World Report.

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