President Joe Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million people against COVID-19 in his first 100 days in office depends on an average reached several times by the Trump administration.
Bloomberg News reported that 1.3 million vaccines were given on Thursday, Biden’s first full day in office.
However, a record 1.6 million immunizations were administered on Wednesday, the day Biden took office. The seven-digit mark was also reached with 1.3 million on January 11 and 1.1 million on January 14 and 16, according to the New York Post.
In saying that he and his team were focused on a “war effort”, Biden and his main spokesman were repeatedly pressured by reporters about whether the vaccination target is too low.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Friday why not aim higher, as the previous week’s average before Trump stepped down was 912,497.
“We set that goal before any American received a single shot,” said Psaki, referring to the vaccination plan that Biden announced in early December.
“Therefore, the new Biden government felt it was important to define what was described as a bold and ambitious goal at the time, and many doubted that we could get there.”
On Thursday, Biden expressed similar words after being asked if his goal was ambitious enough.
“When I announced it, you all said it was not possible,” said Biden. “Come on, give me a break, man! It’s a good start.”
These words came at the end of a briefing in which Biden announced his “large-scale war effort” to win the pandemic by invoking the Defense Production Act, which aims to increase vaccine production and establish federally funded vaccination sites in National level.
Psaki on Friday also blamed the outgoing Trump administration for creating operational challenges.
“We want to define our own bookmarks and bookmarks for the American public, so that they know that we are achieving our goal,” she said. “If we overcome [the 100-day goal], that’s great.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that 17.5 million vaccines were given out of 37.9 million distributed across the country.
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