At the first city hall of his presidency, Joe Biden said on Tuesday that by the end of July, the United States would have more than 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available.
The host was hosted by Anderson Cooper of CNN in Milwaukee. Biden’s first question comes from network cancer, which asked when every American could receive a vaccine for the disease that has so far killed more than 487,000 people in the United States.
“By the end of July of this year,” Biden said firmly. ‘When we took office, there were only 50 million doses available. By the end of July, we have more than 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every American. ‘
Cooper asked Biden if he meant the vaccine would be available and if the shots would be administered by that time.
“They will be available,” Biden replied. ‘Look, what we did, we came into the office and found out that the stock, there was no backlog, I mean there was nothing in the fridge, figuratively and literally, and there were 10 million doses available. We had it in the first three weeks that we were in office significantly increased than that. ”
Biden said it was putting pressure on vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna to increase production to deliver 600 million doses.
“We made them move because we used the National Defense Act to help the manufacturer get more equipment, and so on,” Biden continued.
Biden added that the majority of the 600 million people who want to be vaccinated will be able to do so ‘in the meantime’ rather than having to wait until the end of July.
“What is going to happen is that it will continue to increase as we move further, and we will have reached 400 million by the end of May and 600 million by the end of July,” Biden said.
As of Tuesday, the United States had vaccinated 39.9 million people, or 12 percent of the population. Last week, dr. Anthony Fauci said the phase-out of vaccines for the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions would come to a conclusion in April when he predicted what he would call the start of a new phase.
“If you look at the projection, I would imagine that by the time we are in April, we would be calling. [lack] of better wording, “open season,” Fauci told the NBC program “Today.” “Virtually anyone and everyone in any category can start vaccinating.”
The rush to distribute vaccines comes at a difficult time. COVID-19 continues to mutate, with variants from the United Kingdom and South Africa now actively spreading in the USA. Although both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been found to be effective against the variants detected so far, there is a risk that further mutation may render them ineffective.
“There is no evidence that it is not useful,” Biden said of the two vaccines approved in the United States. “So if you can get a vaccine, get it every time you can get it.”
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