The White House acknowledged Friday that some states will open eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to all of their adults before the May 1 date President Biden set as a deadline in his major prime-time address on the pandemic.
“There hopefully will be states, and we already have one in Alaska, that open up before then,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeffrey Zients said.
Alaska has a relatively small population of about 730,000. But it’s impressed virus-watchers with its efficiency in vaccinating residents, especially in far-flung communities. More than a quarter of its residents have received one dose of vaccine, and it leads the nation with over 16% of its population fully immunized.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, announced on Tuesday that he’s opening eligibility to every resident who wants a shot, though the elderly and vulnerable will continue to be prioritized.
Mr. Zients said Mr. Biden felt it was important to set a deadline for other states. He will use his presidential authority to direct states to open eligibility to all adults if they haven’t by May 1.
The White House said Mr. Biden is amending a public-health declaration to expand the range of professionals eligible to administer the vaccine, including dentists, EMTs, midwives, optometrists, paramedics, physician assistants, podiatrists, respiratory therapists and veterinarians.
Also, Mr. Zients said Friday the administration is launching a federally supported mass-vaccination site in Michigan at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, that can administer up to 6,000 shots per day.
American vaccinators are delivering 2.2 million shots per day, on average.
Roughly 10% of the U.S. population is fully immunized with the one-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson or the two-dose versions from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Another maker, Novavax, recently said its COVID-19 vaccine was more than 96% effective against mild, moderate and severe disease from the original strain of the coronavirus in a U.K. trial, signaling the world could see another weapon in the pandemic fight.
Mr. Biden late Thursday said given the pace of vaccination, he is hoping to see “small gatherings” and some sense of normalcy by Independence Day. They are the most concrete benchmarks he’s laid out as he speaks more optimistically about the path out of the pandemic.
The U.S. is on track to deliver 100 million shots far before the 100-day goal Mr. Biden set for himself, although roughly 1 million daily shots were being administered when he took office.
Ross Baker, a politics professor at Rutgers University, said it is “always good politics to lay down deadlines that you are bound to meet.”
“It’s even better when you set those deadlines so far in advance that you can claim credit for their early achievement,” he said. “I think that the president has hit on a winning formula for cred-claiming.”
But Republicans have accused Mr. Biden of piggy-backing on work started by President Trump — who oversaw vaccine development through “Operation Warp Speed” — and then swooping in to take credit.
“President Biden’s plan is to rely on the work that has already been done by Operation Warp Speed. That’s why only 9% of his ’relief’ bill went to defeating the virus,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted. “What America needs now is to fully reopen our economy and our classrooms.”
Mr. Biden didn’t cite Mr. Trump by name or credit his administration for vaccine development during his prime-time address.
Asked about the snub, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday instead hailed the herculean effort “by science and by medical experts” before the Biden team took office.
“But there are clear steps that have been taken since the president took office that have put us on a trajectory that we were not on when he was inaugurated,” Ms. Psaki said. “Leadership starts at the top. It includes mask-wearing, it includes acknowledging there’s a pandemic, it includes getting a vaccine in public.”
She also said the Biden administration deserves credit for getting more vaccine sites in place.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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