President Joe Biden on Tuesday set his administration's latest goal for the nation's COVID-19 vaccination campaign: having 70% of American adults receive at least one dose of a vaccine and having 160 million fully vaccinated by July 4, the nation's celebrated Independence Day. Biden had previously set the Independence Day goal as a turning point for the pandemic towards a sense of normalcy.
In order to administer tens of millions more vaccines in the next two months, the White House will make additional efforts to encourage more people to receive a vaccine. Biden's new goal comes as his administration moves away from reaching herd immunity, instead to focus on delivering as many shots as possible, as soon as possible to curb the virus's spread.
"In the next two months, our focus is going to be on three groups: kids between 12 and 15 who are awaiting potential [U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)] authorization to get a shot; two, adults who have had trouble locating a place to get a shot or who just haven't gotten around to it; and three, those we need more convincing of the necessity of getting the vaccine," Biden said in remarks from the White House.
The White House's new efforts to attract these three groups include increasing walk-in appointment availability, creating pop-up and mobile clinics to deliver vaccines to harder-to-reach communities, and funding vaccine education campaigns. The Biden administration is also developing plans to speed vaccinations for younger age groups once vaccines are cleared for emergency use by the FDA.
"You do need to get vaccinated," Biden added. "Even if your chance of getting seriously ill is low, why take the risk? It could save your life or the life of somebody you love."
Currently, about 150 million Americans have received at least one dose of either the two dose Pfizer
Biden's new vaccination goal comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a new report that COVID-19 cases will likely surge again in the United States due to the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant strain, which was first identified in the United Kingdom.
The federal public health agency's data suggests that the variant's spread will lead to a surge that will peak in May, and then sharply decline by July.
"Although we are seeing progress in terms of decreased cases, hospitalizations and death, variants are a wildcard that could reverse this progress we have made," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated during a White House COVID press briefing on Wednesday. "We are seeing that our current vaccine are protecting against the contaminant variant circulating in the country. Simply put, the sooner we get more and more people vaccinated, the sooner we will all get back to normal."
