The White House is now saying that not every American will be able to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in spring just one day after President Biden pledged that anyone who wanted a shot could get it by then.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was on Tuesday asked about Biden’s comments 24 hours earlier about when most Americans would be able to receive their shots.
‘The fact is, is every American is not going to be eligible this spring,’ Psaki told the White House press briefing. ‘What the president’s goal is, is ensuring that there’s greater availability in the spring. He will push his team. He pushes his team on COVID and updates on it, even when it’s a meeting about other issues. This is his focus every single day.’
It is in contrast to Biden’s prediction a day earlier that the US would be ‘well on our way’ to herd immunity by the summer after his bullish promise that everyone who ‘wants a vaccine will have it in spring’.
Asked about Biden raising the bar on the number of shots administered each day, Psaki said the president never actually committed to raising his daily goal from one million to 1.5 million vaccines per day.
‘The President didn’t actually say, ‘the new goal is.’ The President said, ‘I hope we can do even more than that, and that is certainly, of course, his hope.’
Biden had said a day earlier that his administration may be able to administer 1.5 million doses per day, saying: ‘I think we may be able to get that to… 1.5 million a day, rather than one million a day… but we have to meet that goal of a million a day.’
The US has now vaccinated 7.1 percent of its population after an additional 1.1 million shots were handed out on Monday. The seven-day rolling average for daily COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide is currently at 1.3 million.
So far 23.4 million vaccine doses have been administered, which is 56 percent of the 41.4 million shots already distributed to states by the federal government.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was on Tuesday asked about Biden’s comments 24 hours earlier about when most Americans would be able to receive their shots
A total of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines were handed out in the United States yesterday. The seven-day rolling average for daily COVID-19 vaccinations nationwide is currently at 1.3 million
Despite the rough start, the number of shots being handed out nationwide has been increasing since the rollout began in mid-December under Trump’s administration. Since January 1, the average number of vaccine doses per day has quadrupled.
It comes as Moderna said on Tuesday it was on track to deliver about 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US by March and another 100 million by June.
The company, which signed a purchase agreement with the US for 200 million doses, said it has supplied 30.4 million doses of its vaccine so far.
According to CDC data, only 10 million of those Moderna vaccines have actually be distributed.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which both require two doses, are currently the only ones being offered in the US.
Shots made by Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, which only require one dose, have not been approved by the FDA but both are expected to be within the next few months.
Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday it expected to report eagerly-awaited data on its COVID-19 vaccine early next week and that it would be able to meet the delivery target for doses to countries with which it had signed supply agreements.
Public health officials are increasingly counting on single-dose options like the one being tested by J&J to simplify and boost inoculations given the complications and slower-than-hoped rollout of Pfizer and Moderna.
So far 7.1 percent of the US population has been vaccinated. In total, 23.4 million vaccine doses have been administered, which is 56 percent of the 41.4 million shots already distributed to states by the federal government
On Monday, Biden had said that everyone who ‘wants a vaccine will have it in spring’.
Based on that target, there would need to be enough doses for 200 million people by June 20, which is the official end date for spring.
That equates to a pace of at least 1.2 million doses per day or 2.4 million doses per day to fully immunize those 200 million people.
‘I think it will be this spring. I think we’ll be able to do that this spring,’ Biden said. ‘It’s going to be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we’ve ever tried in this country. But I think we can do that.’
Asked if his initial target of 100 million doses in 100 days was not ambitious enough Biden said: ‘So I’m quite confident that we will be in a position within the next three weeks or so to be vaccinating people at the range of a million a day or in excess of that.
‘I promised we would get at least 100 million vaccinations. That’s not people. sometimes you need more than one shot, the vaccination.
‘I think with the grace of God, the good will of the neighbor and the creek not rising, as the old saying goes, I think we may be able to get that to 1.5 million a day rather than 1 million a day,’ Biden said.
Moderna said on Tuesday it was on track to deliver about 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the US by March and another 100 million by June
Meanwhile, an increasing number of vaccination sites across the country have been canceling appointments due to shortages.
States were expected to find out their latest weekly allocation of vaccines on Tuesday amid complaints from governors and top health officials about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of how much is on the way so that they can plan accordingly.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Biden’s new CDC director, was herself flummoxed over the weekend in trying to describe current supplies.
‘I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have,’ she told Fox News Sunday, describing the problem as a challenge left by the outgoing Trump administration.
‘And if I can’t tell it to you, then I can’t tell it to the governors, and I can’t tell it to the state health officials. If they don’t know how much vaccine they’re getting, not just this week, but next week and the week after, they can’t plan.’
On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state can’t meet growing demand from residents partly because an increase in vaccine promised by the government hasn’t happened.
‘We are at the mercy of what the federal government sends us, and right now we are able to go through it quicker than what we are receiving,’ he said.
People without appointments wait in line for the potential chance to receive a vaccination that would have otherwise been discarded at the Kedren Community Health Center in Los Angeles on Monday
A large crowd lined up out the hospital in Los Angeles in case doses had to be discarded and they could receive a shot
Psaki responded by saying that Florida has administered only about half of the vaccines it has been given.
Some state officials have also complained of a lag between when they report their numbers to the government and when the figures are posted on the CDC website.
While some vaccination sites have canceled appointments for first-dose shots, many are believed to be holding large quantities of vaccine in reserve to make sure people who have already gotten their first shot receive the required second one on schedule, three to four weeks later.
Inova Health System, the largest health provider in Virginia’s Washington, DC suburbs, said it is canceling all first-dose appointments at its mass vaccination clinics beginning Thursday because of inadequate supplies. Those who have already received a first dose will have their appointments for a second dose honored, it said.
In North Carolina, Greensboro-based Cone Health announced it is canceling first-dose appointments for 10,000 people and moving them to a waiting list because of supply problems. Also, UNC Health said Monday that the 10,000 doses it will receive this week are less than half of what it expected.
North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said Monday that ‘challenges and shortages’ will persist as long as the state is ‘getting such a small amount of vaccine.’