Joe Biden will move the vaccination eligibility goalpost up by two weeks as he plans to announce Tuesday all American adults can get inocu...
Joe Biden will move the vaccination eligibility goalpost up by two weeks as he plans to announce Tuesday all American adults can get inoculated against coronavirus by April 19.
The new goal comes as 34 states have already opened up vaccination eligibility to those 16 and older and 41 states will have have it opened up to adults before April 19 anyway.
An administration official told CNN that the president is expected to make the announcement during remarks on the state of vaccinations at the White House Tuesday afternoon. Biden will also credit governors for the change after most made announcements in line with or exceeding his previous goal.
Some liberal states more hard hit by the pandemic are less ambitious in their vaccination eligibility, including California, New Jersey, Hawaii and Oregon.
During a speech last week, Biden already said 90% of adults would be eligible for vaccines by mid-April – and the previous goal was to open it to everyone above 18 by May 1.
President Joe Biden will announce during a speech at the White House Tuesday all adults will be eligible for the COVID vaccine by April 19 – two weeks earlier than his previous goal of May 1
The announcement comes as 41 states have already or will already have vaccine eligibility open to those 16 and older by April 19
Before Biden's new goal is unveiled, 41 states will have already opened up vaccine eligibility to adults. And four other governors have announced they will open it up by April 19.
Although eligibility is expanding at a rapid pace, this does not necessarily mean inoculation rates will speed up in the U.S.
Some states are experiencing obstacles with getting shots in the arms of even those who are more at risk – like individuals older than 60 and those with preexisting conditions.
People have lamented of lone wait times and lines while others say they can't even get an appointment and spend their days refreshing web pages to try and snag a time to get the shot.
A few states have even reported shortages of shots.
Notably last week, a facility in Baltimore, Maryland had to throw out 15 million one-shot doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after an ingredient error.
The administration has set some low goals they have easily surpassed and later changed to be more ambitious.
When taking office, Biden said he wanted to get 100 million shots administered in his first 100 days in office. Far exceeding that goal, he later said the new target is to get 200 million vaccinations in arms by the 100 day mark.
During last week's speech, Biden said he aims to get a vaccination site within 5 miles of 90% of Americans by April 19 – mainly by increasing the number of federal pharmacy vaccination program sites from 17,000 to 40,000.
Besides remarks on inoculation progress from the White House, the president will also visit on Tuesday afternoon a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia.
During his speech, Biden is also expected to tout that 150 million doses of the vaccine have been given within his first 75 days, meaning he is well on track to reach his 200 million goal.
He will also bring attention to a record breaking day last weekend where 4 million doses were administered in a 24-hour period.
As of Tuesday morning more than 30.7 million Americans have tested positive for coronavirus while more than 555,000 have died after contracting it.
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