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The
president, who has made fighting the coronavirus a key priority
of his administration, had previously announced July 4 as a
target date for Americans to gather in small groups to celebrate
the holiday and signal a return to greater normalcy in the
middle of the pandemic.
Biden's new goal takes into account an increasing, though not
unexpected, challenge of getting shots into the arms of people
who are hesitant about the vaccine.
Biden said his administration would focus on getting vaccine to
more rural areas of the country, using smaller locations as mass
vaccination sites were wound down.
"Now that we have the vaccine supply, we're focused on
convincing even more Americans to show up and get the vaccine
that is available to them," Biden told reporters at the White
House while announcing his target. "If we succeed in this effort
... then Americans will have taken a serious step towards a
return to normal."
Biden's new goal includes having 160 million adults fully
vaccinated by the Fourth of July.
An administration official told reporters that 105 million
Americans are fully vaccinated and more than 56% of U.S. adults,
or 147 million people, have received at least one shot. (Graphic
on global vaccines) https://tmsnrt.rs/3tUM8ta
The administration is working to win over those who are hesitant
about the vaccine, including supporters of former President
Donald Trump and young adults.
"There are a lot of younger people, especially those in their
20s and 30s who believe they don't need it. Well, I want to be
absolutely clear: You do need to get vaccinated," Biden said.
The president's goal would result in roughly half of the entire
U.S. population being vaccinated by early July. Since coming
into office, Biden and his team repeatedly have set goals such
as getting 100 million people vaccinated during his first 100
days in office, a target he later increased to 200 million
people, only to surpass them.
"One characteristic of Biden's Covid approach has been
underpromise & overdeliver. So when they say they have a goal of
70% of adults having received at least one shot by July 4, it
means they're pretty sure they can do better," Dr. Robert
Wachter, professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at
the University of California, San Francisco wrote on Twitter.
The president made clear his administration is gearing up to
administer vaccines to 12- to 15-year-olds once authorized by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Current vaccines cover
age 16 and up.
"I want American parents to know that if that announcement
comes, we are ready to move immediately," Biden said, adding
that 20,000 pharmacies across the country would serve as
vaccination sites as soon as FDA approval came through.
To meet the president's broader target, the government also will
work to make the vaccine accessible by having thousands of
pharmacies allow walk-in appointments.
Vaccination rates vary with a high of over 57% of eligible
people in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont to less than
33% in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
The White House said on Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccine doses
allocated to states but left unordered will become available to
other states, representing a policy shift aimed at delivering
vaccines to where they are most in demand.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting
by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Jonathan Oatis
and Cynthia Osterman)
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