WASHINGTON (AP) – US to reach President Joe Biden’s latest vaccine target to deliver 200 million coronavirus shots in his first 100 days in office, when the White House increased its efforts to vaccinate the rest of the public.
With more than 50% of adults at least partially vaccinated, Biden will reflect on Wednesday on his efforts to expand the distribution and access of vaccines in his first three months in the White House. But with all those 16 and older now eligible for shots, the president is expected to outline his administration’s plans to further increase the vaccination rate.
With approximately 28 million doses of vaccines delivered each week, demand has disappeared as the limiting factor for vaccinations in much of the country. While surveys have shown that the hesitation of vaccines has declined since the shots were rolled out, administration officials believe they should make vaccination easier and more attractive.
The maximum number of Americans vaccinated in the coming months is critical to the White House, which aims to restore a semblance of normality around the Fourth of July holiday, and even more so by the beginning of the next school year.
Biden is not expected to set new public targets for vaccinations, and administrative officials have been careful to predict when the country will vaccinate enough people to achieve herd immunity.. The US is on track to have enough vaccine by the end of May and for every American by July, but administering the shots will be a different matter.
Over the past few weeks, the White House has launched a massive outreach campaign to vaccinate Americans rely on funding from $ 1.9 billion virus relief package managed last month to launch advertisements and fund direct community involvement in under-vaccinated constituencies.
Biden set his goal of 200 million shots last month after reaching his goal of 100 million-in-100 days just over a month ago. At the time, the U.S. was well on track to reach the higher target, and the rate of vaccinations only accelerated, to about 3 million shots per day.
The goal of 100 million doses was first announced on December 8, days before the US had even one authorized vaccine for COVID-19, let alone the three who have now received emergency approval. Yet it is usually seen within reach when it is optimistic.
When Biden was inaugurated on January 20, the US had already fired 20 million shots at a rate of about 1 million a day, which at the time brought complaints that Biden’s goal was not ambitious enough. Biden quickly revised it to 150 million doses in its first 100 days.
It was a deliberate attempt by Biden to set clear – and achievable – criteria for success as part of a strategy to do too little, and then deliver too much. Aides believes that violating his goals inspires confidence in the government after the Trump administration’s sometimes imaginative rhetoric about the virus.