How many Americans will be vaccinated in the next few weeks according to Biden's predictions?
The country did not meet the President’s vaccination targets by the Fourth of July, however, Biden is optimistic they will be met soon.
In March, President Biden and his administration released the vaccination goals they hoped to reach by the Fourth of July.
The main target was to have seventy percent of adults vaccinated with one or both doses by Independence Day. The seventy-percent benchmark was not reached, but the President announced that projections show that the country will meet the goal in the next few weeks
On 6 July, President Biden spoke about the progress the country has made in terms of vaccinations. While not directly mentioning that the seventy percent target was missed, the President did announce that projections show that the country will meet the goal in the next few weeks.
While the seventy percent threshold was not met for all adults, it was reached for those over twenty-seven. Biden also noted that over ninety percent of those over 65 had received at least one shot.
Additionally, Biden mentioned that the country did meet the goal of administering 300 million covid-19 vaccines within his first 150 days in office.
How have vaccines impacted covid-19 cases and deaths?
The President also noted that since taking office, “covid-19 cases and deaths are down by 90 percent since January.” The vaccination campaign has also assisted the economic recovery as more and more Americans to get their shots, allowing them to live “their lives as they did before.”
Based on the administration’s figures, the “projected economic growth is the highest it’s been — projected growth is the highest it’s been in four decades.”
Days earlier, on the 4th of July, the President also addressed the nation and struck an optimistic but sorrowful tone when taking time to pay respect to the more than 600,000 Americans that lost their lives to covid-19.
On Sunday, 4 July, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Chuck Todd of NBC that a new study had found that of the patients who lost their lives to covid-19 in June, 99% were unvaccinated. Dr. Fauci, one of the nation’s most trusted health experts, called these deaths “avoidable and preventable.”
While noting that no vaccine is perfect, Dr. Fauci told Todd that while “you’ll see some who are vaccinated and still get into trouble and get hospitalized and die. But the overwhelming proportion of people who get into trouble are the unvaccinated."
The data is clear -- vaccines prevent severe infection in the vast majority of those who receive them. Additionally, as the delta variant, which is thought to be much more transmissible than other strains that had circulated in the US, becomes more pervasive, unvaccinated people face a disproportionate risk of death or lasting health impacts.
To encourage vaccination, the administration will target family health providers and local pharmacies to make it even easier for those who haven’t yet been poked to do so.