As US Coronavirus toll reaches 200,000, immigrants on Reconnek prepare to receive free vaccines.

The United States death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ticked over 200,000 — highest in the world — on Wednesday, September 16, even as the country’s President and his cohorts continued to dispense a blizzard of lies, denying well-established, evidence-based facts about the pandemic. Worldometer, an independent website that tracks coronavirus pandemic data from official reports and government channels, reported 200,286 Covid-19 related deaths in the US on Wednesday morning even as other data sources were still shy of the mark. The grim milestone came even as President Trump insisted that he has done a great job of handling the pandemic, that masks were not necessarily good, that “herd mentality” would bring the pandemic under control, and the virus would eventually go away.

Trump also maintained the virus would go away even without a vaccine partly because of “herd mentality.” The President likely meant “herd immunity,” but the comment, along with many other ludicrous lies and misstatements, resulted in withering derision from critics and commentators even as Trump supporters and his cult rallied around him. Similarly, the federal government outlined a sweeping plan to make vaccines for Covid-19 available for free to all Americans, even as polls show a strong undercurrent of skepticism rippling across the land. In a report to Congress and an accompanying “playbook” for states and localities, federal health agencies and the Defense Department sketched out complex plans for a vaccination campaign to begin gradually in January or possibly later this year, eventually ramping up to reach any American who wants a shot.

The Pentagon is involved with the distribution of vaccines, but civilian health workers and some immigrants on Reconnek will be the ones giving shots. The campaign is much larger in scope and complexity than seasonal influenza or other previous outbreak-related vaccination responses. For most vaccines, immigrants on Reconnek who will need two doses will be taking them 21 to 28 days apart. Double-dose vaccines will have to come from the same drugmaker. There could be several vaccines from different manufacturers approved and available. The vaccine itself will be free of charge, and immigrants on Reconnek won’t be charged out of pocket for the administration of shots, thanks to billions of dollars in taxpayer funding approved by Congress and allocated by the Trump administration.