100M shots in 100 days. Then what?
Biden’s team worried about vaccine shortages down the road
Washington — The United States needs to move faster to immunize the public against the coronavirus, but efforts to accelerate beyond President Joe Biden’s goal of 100 million shots in 100 days may be hindered by the lack of vaccine doses, according to Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I think that the supply is probably going to be the most limiting constraint early on, and we’re really hoping that after that first 100 days, we’ll have much more production,” Walensky said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“We’re really hoping we’ll have more vaccine and that will increase the pace at which we can do the vaccinations,” she said.
As officials push to boost inoculation efforts to help crush the pandemic, scientists are challenged by trying to understanding coronavirus variants. Anthony Fauci, the government’s senior infectious-disease expert and Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, said the coronavirus variant first detected in the United Kingdom is more deadly and spreads faster.
“We need to assume now what has been circulating dominantly in the U.K. does have an increase in what we call virulence to cause more damage, including death,” Fauci said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.”
On Saturday, the United States reported more than 1.3 million newly administered doses of coronavirus vaccines, the fifth day in a row the country has topped 1 million daily doses, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. That pace suggests that the country already is on track to meet the Biden administration’s 100day goal. The target was criticized by some who said it was unrealistic when Biden announced it in December, but it now seems less ambitious because of increased manufacturing certainty and a ramped-up inoculation pace in the last days of the Trump administration.
Biden defended the vaccination goal Thursday. “When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break, man. It’s a good start.”
Biden officials have since said the 100 million figure is their starting point, not a final goal.
The country appears to have avoided worst-case scenarios for a surge in the wake of holiday gatherings, but experts say the virus’s threat could intensify with the emergence of new variants.
Up to 100 sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could begin offering doses of coronavirus vaccines within the next month, an expansion of the federal government’s role in fighting the pandemic.
People who have received their first vaccine dose can schedule their second shot up to six weeks later if they are not able to get one in the recommended time frame, according to updated guidance from the CDC. “We’re just ensuring clinicians that if they can’t do it at exactly 21 days or 28 days, that there’s leeway or flexibility,” said CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund.
On Saturday, the United States reported more than 1.3 million newly administered doses of coronavirus vaccines, the fifth day in a row the country has topped 1 million daily doses, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. That pace suggests that the country already is on track to meet the Biden administration’s 100-day goal.