The impressive amount of progress the Biden Administration has made on COVID-19 vaccinations in its first few months has America on a steady drumbeat toward herd immunity and is in stark contrast to its predecessor. And the American Rescue Plan is already boosting vaccine efforts in localities across the country.
After promising 100 million vaccinations in a 100 days upon entering office, President Biden is set to blow past that mark this week, 6 weeks earlier than promised.
In a briefing earlier this week, the White House announced that they were hitting a seven-day average of nearly 2.4 million Americans a day, up from about 900,000 when Biden took office. Daily vaccinations in the US reached a new world record high this past weekend, with 2.98 million doses administered last Saturday. The White House also revealed in the briefing that “nearly 30 percent of adults and nearly two thirds of seniors have now received their first vaccination shot.”
After announcing a partnership with Merck that would give America enough vaccine supply for every American by May, Biden announced last Wednesday that an additional 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be ordered, bringing the total amount ordered to 800 million. On March 10th, the White House announced that Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine supply will increase to more than 20 million doses going out to states, double the number going out every week before the Biden administration came into office.
In February alone, the Biden administration established and expanded 441 federally-funded vaccine centers in its first month of office, including 171 staffed by federal personnel. Over the past 3 weeks, over 250 federal community health centers have been onboarded, collectively serving 12.5 million people and spanning all 50 states.
And with the passage of the American Rescue Plan last week, the vaccine train won’t be stopping any time soon. Provisions in the ARP include $7.5 billion for the CDC to administer and distribute COVID-19 vaccines, $46 billion for diagnosing and tracing coronavirus infections, and $2 billion for buying and distributing various testing supplies and personal protective equipment.
For a more detailed look at the differences between the Biden and Trump administrations’ vaccine rollouts, see our post here.