President Biden said he hopes to accept the NFL in an offer to use its 32 stadiums as mass vaccination sites during an interview aired Sunday.
The president told CBS’s Norah O’Donnell in an interview with the Super Bowl that he received a call from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in which the commissioner offered the league’s 32 stadiums as possible vaccination sites.
When asked if the Biden administration will accept Goodell with the offer, Biden replied, “Absolutely, we will,” before adding, “Let me say it this way, I’ll tell my team that it’s available and I think “I’ll use them.”
SUPER BOWL INTERVIEW: Pres. Biden sits with him @NorahODonnell for his first online interview since taking office.
Pres. Biden says it’s time for “schools to reopen safely,” adding that about 20 million children who can’t attend school this year “are a national emergency.” pic.twitter.com/enCZsSTwHR
– CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) February 7, 2021
Biden’s public calendar for Monday indicates that he and Vice President Harris will virtually tour the vaccination site at Arizona’s Farm State Stadium, which normally hosts the Arizona Cardinals.
Six other stadiums belonging to the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots are also being used as vaccination sites, according to ESPN.
During his interview on CBS, the president said that when he took office last month “one of the disappointments” was “that the circumstances related to the way the administration managed COVID were even more serious than we thought. “
“That’s why we’ve increased everywhere we can,” he said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, allowing more than 31.5 million to receive one or more doses of the vaccine and more than 9.1 million to receive two doses, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Parts of the interview aired before the launch of the Super Bowl, in which Kansas City bosses faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.