The White House declared that The Biden administration has already met President Joe Biden’s goal of 70 percent of U.S. adults 30 and older covered under at least one shot of anti-corona vaccine.
“We got here because the President treated this as a wartime effort; built a whole-of-government response to defeat the pandemic; and mobilized state and local governments, the private and non-profit sectors, and asked every American to join this fight,” COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said at a briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team.
The Biden administration achieved the goal within the past 150 days by administering 300 million shots through more than 81,000 convenient vaccination sites. Today, 90 percent of Americans live within five miles of a vaccine site. Tens of thousands of sites offer walk-in vaccinations, and thousands are open 24 hours a day on Fridays in June.
“Instead of hitting the major milestone of 300 million shots in June, we would have hit it in December — six months from now. And America would have looked a lot different than it does today. We would have lost more lives; more people would have gotten sick; and many of our businesses, restaurants, and schools would still be closed,” Zients told reporters.
More than 177 million Americans have received at least one vaccine shot, and more than 150 million are now fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest data.
77 percent of people 65 and older are fully vaccinated.
Zients noted that where the country has more work to do is particularly with 18- to 26-year-olds. “The reality is: Many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and they’ve been less eager to get the shot”. “However, with the Delta variant now spreading across the country and infecting younger people worldwide, it’s more important than ever that they get vaccinated,” he added.
Zients said that based on latest estimates, the country is on track to meet the 70 percent goal for ages 27 and older by the end of July 4th weekend, with a few extra weeks needed for people in the 18-26 age category to get vaccinated.
Zients said that as the Biden administration push to get more Americans vaccinated, it is also focused on leading the efforts to vaccinate the world.
Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci said the endgame is to go well beyond July 4th, “into the summer and beyond, with the ultimate goal of crushing the outbreak completely in the United States.”
There are 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, that have vaccinated more than 70 percent of their population; 4 U.S. states vaccinated less than 50 percent while 30 states have between 50 and more than 70 percent of their people vaccinated.
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