WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden said he hopes that anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get it in the spring and he has increased his vaccination goal in the first 100 days in office.
Biden said on Monday that he now thinks the country can administer 1.5 million vaccines a day for the next few weeks and give 150 million vaccines over the next 100 days, “with the grace of God”.
In December, Biden set a goal of 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days, and at the time, no vaccines had been released for use. But with states stepping up their vaccination efforts in recent weeks, the country is already reaching Biden’s average target of about 1 million shots a day.
To achieve his new goal, Biden said the federal government will have to open more vaccination posts, hire more people to administer vaccines and ensure that there are sufficient supplies of things like syringes. He is asking Congress for more than $ 400 billion to fund these efforts.
“It will be a logistical challenge that goes beyond anything we’ve tried in this country, but I think we can do that,” said Biden. He said that in the summer, “we will be well on the way to collective immunity”, including making the vaccine available to children.
Biden warned that it will still take time for America to defeat the virus – responding to criticisms of its recent comments that the path of the virus will not change for months.
“It will take time, it will take a lot of time,” said Biden, adding that “we are in this for a while”.
Since the two approved vaccines require two doses to obtain full benefits, 150 million injections would provide protection to 75 million Americans – about 23% of the population. Public health officials, including those working with the Biden government, said more than 70% of the population would be needed to vaccinate and achieve collective immunity.
State officials have increasingly complained about the lack of vaccine supplies and items like syringes. Officials also complained about the lack of consistent information from the federal government about the amount of doses they will receive and when they will receive them. Biden said he has been working with vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer and Moderna, to produce more vaccines in a “relatively short period of time”.
Biden’s accelerated schedule is still less optimistic than that announced by the previous president. The Trump administration’s secretary of health and human services. Alex Azar said in December that the general public could obtain the vaccine at his local pharmacy as early as the end of February. Azar also promised that 20 million people would receive the vaccine by the end of the year – a milestone the country only reached on Sunday.
