President Joe Biden said Monday he believes it will be “this spring” when any American who wants a COVID-19 vaccine can get one. This is perhaps the most ambitious goal publicly mentioned by his administration to date.
“I think it will be this spring. I think we can do it this spring,” Biden said Monday when a reporter asked him when any American who wants a vaccine should be able to get one. “But it will be a logistical challenge that goes beyond anything we’ve ever tried in this country. But I think we can do it. I’m sure in the summer we’ll be well on our way to herd immunity. And increase access to to people who aren’t at the top, on the list, to the kids and how we deal with it. But I feel good about where we’re going and I think we can get there. ”
In recent days, Biden administration officials in calls and at press conferences had refused to set a specific timetable for when the vaccine will be widely available to the public.
The new president also raised his hopes about how many doses of the vaccine can be administered during his first 100 days in office, from 100 million to 150 million. Some had questioned whether the 100 million shots fired by the Biden administration during the first 100 days were ambitious enough, given that the United States was already handling about a million shots a day when he took office.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, now Mr Biden’s adviser on the COVID-19 response, said in a interview with “Face the Nation” Sunday that the administration hopes to exceed this goal.
“It will be a challenge,” Fauci said. “I think a reasonable goal was set. We always want to do it better than the goal that was set, but it’s really a floor and not a ceiling.”
In December, Fauci estimated that it could be “sometime in late March, early April, that the normal healthy man and woman on the street who have no underlying conditions would probably get it.” Fauci has said he expects enough people in the U.S. to be vaccinated in early summer for the nation to start arriving. herd immunity. There is no fixed determination of herd immunity for COVID-19, but experts estimate that at least approximately 70% of the population needs to be immune to the virus to achieve this.
In a CBS News poll earlier this month, 59% of Americans surveyed said they thought the vaccine launch was moving too slowly, while a smaller number still hesitated to get it. Forty-one percent said they would get the shot as soon as they could, while 37% said they would wait to see how it goes for them first.