President Biden said Thursday he will hit his goal of 100 million COVID-19 shots in his first 100 days on Friday, his 58th day in office.
“That’s weeks ahead of schedule, and even with the setbacks we had with the winter storms,” Mr. Biden said from the White House.
“That’s just the floor. We will not stop until we beat this pandemic,” he said.
Mr. Biden was celebrating doses given during his tenure alone. The campaign began before his inauguration, so the U.S. has administered nearly 116 million doses altogether.
More than one in five Americans has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Republicans and others say the U.S. was administering close to 1 million shots per day when former President Trump gave way to Mr. Biden, so the goal was modest from the start and he should have set his sights higher.
Mr. Biden argued he reached pretty high, referring to headlines from December that called his mission “audacious.” He said he’ll announce new goals in the coming days.
The pace of vaccinations has ramped up steadily with increasing supply.
The U.S. is averaging nearly 2.5 million shots per day, making it the envy of places like Europe, where a key regulatory agency said Thursday that vaccinations with the AstraZeneca version should continue after some countries paused their rollout due to worries over blood clots.
Mr. Biden said he expects to have enough doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson for every American adult who wants the vaccine by the end of May, though administering the shots will take longer.
He wants the states to make every adult eligible for the shots by May 1. A few states have already opened up eligibility instead of working through priority groups.
Mr. Biden said he wants the vaccine program to reach the vulnerable and underprivileged along the way.
“We believe speed and efficiency must be matched with fairness and equity,” Mr. Biden said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.