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(Reuters) - The Trump administration moved on Tuesday to accelerate vaccinations of Americans against COVID-19, releasing the rest of the doses it had been keeping in reserve and recommending states immediately open inoculations to those aged 65 and over.
Firefighter Jenkins from Pasadena Fire Department administers a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Pasadena, California, U.S., January 12, 2021. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Federal and state health officials have scrambled in recent days to step up vaccination programs that had given shots to only 9.3 million Americans as coronavirus infections remain at record highs in many U.S. states nearly two weeks into the new year.
UpdatedWed, Jan 13, 2021 at 3:39 pm ET
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Boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared for shipment at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant on Dec. 13 in Portage, Michigan. (Photo by Morry Gash - Pool/Getty Images)
ACROSS AMERICA Trust in the two coronavirus vaccines that have been authorized for use in the United States has varied from state to state and region to region. It s another recent crisis that s giving pause to residents in Flint, Michigan, where people remain skeptical in leadership some six years after an 18-month water crisis. When you tell us that the water is safe, but it really wasn t, that relationship between leadership and the community is still damaged, Todd Womack, pastor of community connections at Central Church of the Nazarene in Flint, told NBC News. That just layers the historical trauma that has presented itself in our community.
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A scheduled trip to Taiwan by Kelly Craft, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, has been cancelled by the U.S. State Department.
Ambassador Craft was due to arrive in Taiwan Wednesday for a three-day visit that included meetings with President Tsai Ing-wen and other senior officials.
But State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus issued a statement Tuesday saying the department was cancelling all official travel this week, citing the transition to the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office next Wednesday, January 20.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose planned trip to Europe was also cancelled, issued a statement Saturday easing self-imposed restrictions on all contacts between U.S. diplomatic officials and their Taiwanese counterparts.