Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Joe Biden revealed his COVID-19 plan shortly before taking office. He was hoping that there would be 100 vaccinations in his first 100 days. At the time, the goal seemed ambitious, especially with concerns over convincing people to take the shot.
And when Biden took office last week, the COVID program was in shambles. The Trump White House stopped holding coronavirus briefings prior to the election. And many states don’t have anywhere the vaccine supply they need to fulfill demand.
Even with those issues, though, the country is already close to reaching the original goal set by Biden. Daily vaccinations have regularly come in somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 a day. While speaking with reporters Monday, Biden said he would like to get the number up to 1.5 million.
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“I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million [shots] a day, rather than 1 million a day. But we have to meet that goal of a million a day,” said the President.Â
Biden continued, “We’re trying to get out a minimum of 100 million vaccinations in 100 days, and move in the direction where we’re well beyond that in the next 100 days, so we can get to the point where we reach herd immunity in a country of over 300 million people.”
.@GStephanopoulos: “Can we get to herd immunity before the next school year begins?â€
Biden nominee for Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: "That’s an ambitious goal. I do think we can see improvements … the more people we vaccinate, the better we will do.†https://t.co/revKTaAEyP pic.twitter.com/SWSGz4E020
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 24, 2021
This is similar to comments made by surgeon general nominee Vivek Murthy on ABC News this weekend. “That’s a floor; it’s not a ceiling,†said Murthy of the 1 million a shot day goal. “It’s also a goal that reflects the realities of what we face, what could go right but also what could go wrong.”
Todd Neikirk is a New Jersey based politics and technology writer. His work has been featured in psfk.com, foxsports.com and hillreporter.com. He enjoys sports, politics, comic books and spending time at the shore with his family.
