PRESIDENT Joe Biden on Tuesday announced his administration will buy 200million more coronavirus vaccine doses in a push to have nearly all Americans inoculated by summer.
The president’s plan entails purchasing an additional 100 doses of the Pfizer jab and 100 more doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Biden entered office pledging to deliver 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.
With the new bulk purchases, the country would be positioned to inject 300million Americans by the end of summer or early fall.
“The biggest problem, I hope you’re all asking me by the end of summer is that you have too much vaccine leftover,” Biden said.
The US has a population of about 329million, meaning that administering 300million shots would exceed the 80 percent threshold for herd immunity.
More vaccines could become available if the government in the coming weeks approves the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a single-dose jab unlike the Pfizer and Modern shots that call for two doses.
The government aims to distribute 10.1million first and second doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines next week, up from 8.6million handed out this week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“This is going to allow millions of more Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated,” Biden said.
The president promised that states would receive 16 percent more doses in the coming three weeks, after acknowledging that many states were in the dark about the amount they would receive.
That uncertainty caused tens of thousands of appointments for the first Covid-19 shots to be canceled.
“This is unacceptable,” Biden said.
“Lives are at stake.”
State and local leaders “will now always have a reliable three-week forecast of the supply they’re going to get,” the president continued.
Biden said that his team arrived at the White House to find the vaccination program “in worse shape than we anticipated or expected.”
He said the Trump administration cooperated in the transition only at the end, but said that “credit is absolutely due” for getting the vaccination program off the ground.
“We want to give credit to everyone involved in this vaccine effort and the prior administration and the science community and the medical sphere,” Biden said.
As of Tuesday, the US has experienced more than 420,000 coronavirus deaths and more than 25.4million cases.
The Biden administration has vowed to hold coronavirus briefings three times a week starting on Wednesday as well as openness about the state of the pandemic.
