Failing to meet his self-imposed July 4 vaccination goal, President Joe Biden outlined several strategies earlier this week to help persuade more Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
"It's a year of hard-fought progress. We can't get complacent now. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family and the people you care about the most is get vaccinated. The best thing a community can do to protect themselves is to increase vaccination rates," Biden said in remarks at the White House complex on the federal government's coronavirus response on Tuesday, after missing his deadline for 70% of U.S. adults to receive at least one vaccine dose by July 4.
However, the nation is on track to meet that goal by the end of this week, with 160 million Americans set to be fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both doses of either the Pfizer
Moving forward, the Biden administration is planning to take a more targeted strategy to vaccinations by winding down mass vaccination sites--which saw thousands of people daily--and instead focuses on a community by community approach.
First, the White House plans to put more emphasis on local pharmacy vaccination sites, which typically allow an individual to walk in without an appointment and get inoculated while picking up other healthcare or personal care items. The Biden administration already has vaccine partnerships with large national pharmacy chains like CVS Health
Next, the administration plans to coordinate more vaccines to family doctors and other healthcare providers, so that more Americans can receive a shot from a doctor they trust. Additionally, the administration is going to increase efforts to get vaccines to pediatricians who serve adolescents ages 12 to 18 so that they can encourage students (and their parents) to get vaccinated before the back-to-school season.
Finally, the White House plans to intensify its efforts to meet people where they are--at work, outside neighborhoods, and even door-to-door outreaches. The administration will also equipe mobile clinics to park outside of major festivals, sporting events, as well as places of worship, to vaccinate people wherever they are gathered.
These strategies are in addition to the new "COVID-19 Surge Response Teams" that will help states prevent, detect, and respond to the spread of the Delta variant, which has become the dominant COVID strain in the U.S., among unvaccinated people in communities with low vaccination rates.
"The bottom line is: My administration is doing everything it can to lead a whole-of-government response at the federal, state and local levels to defeat the pandemic," Biden added. "But we need everyone to do their part. Millions of Americans have already done that. We need to keep it up though. We have to keep it up until we're finished."
