President Joe Biden’s pledge to celebrate July 4 ~ America’s independence day ~ to mark what he calls “independence from Covid-19” if people get vaccinated over the next three months, might sound a mite ambitious for the world’s worst affected nation.

In his first primetime address after taking over as President on January 20, Mr Biden said on Friday, after signing the Covid relief bill, that he will order states to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1. This must be considered as a paradigm shift in terms of the antidote, whose allegedly adverse side-effects are yet to be incisively analysed.

Current measures prioritise people on the basis of age or health condition. It is profoundly significant that Mr Biden’s address to the nation was organised exactly a year ~ to the day ~ after the outbreak was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The catastrophe has been decidedly hideous over the past year when we reflect that half a million Americans have perished. The figure has been calibrated as more than the death toll in the two World Wars (1914-18 and 1939-45) and the Vietnam War combined.

Last year many Americans were forced to forgo the elaborate parades, fireworks displays and parties that feature in the national holiday on July 4, the date that marks independence from Britain. President Biden said he did not expect large events to be able to go ahead, but he hoped small groups could meet again.

“If we do this together, by 4 July, there is a good chance you, your family and friends can get together in your backyard or in your neighbourhood and have a cookout or a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. After a long, hard year, that will make this Independence Day truly special as we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”

It is doubtless a noble pledge in the aftermath of the ignoble indifference of his predecessor. The United States has by far the highest death toll in the world from the virus, but death and infection rates have been declining in recent weeks as the vaccine programme has picked up.

The country’s health system is complex and individual states are in charge of public health policy. While the federal government is responsible for getting the vaccine distributed to the states, it has largely relied on them to handle the distribution. In the net, the US President has effected a fine distinction between two definitions of independence, i.e. that of a nation and the one from a virus that has killed many and has been greeted with a sense of shock and awe by many more. He has sought to take care of vaccinations ahead of the romantic euphoria of July 4.