President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the COVID-19 response and the state of vaccinations as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on at the South Court Auditorium of Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 21, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Tuesday will announce his administration’s latest goals in the fight against the coronavirus: getting 70% of U.S. adults to receive at least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and having 160 million adults fully vaccinated, by July 4.
The new vaccination targets, detailed by senior administration officials ahead of Biden’s formal unveiling at 2:30 p.m. ET, came two months out from Independence Day, a date the White House hopes will mark a turning point in the pandemic.
“We’re going to look different as a country than we do today” once 70% of adults have received at least one shot, an official told reporters on a call.
“There are going to be, clearly, far less public health restrictions,” the official said.
In order to administer tens of millions more inoculations in the next 61 days, the president will take additional steps to encourage more people to get vaccinated and make it easier for them to do so, officials said.
Biden will direct thousands of local pharmacies to provide walk-in vaccinations to people without appointments, an official said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, will also support pop-up and mobile clinics, which are aimed at individuals who may otherwise have trouble reaching vaccination sites.
The White House is also preparing to “be able to mobilize immediately” if the Food and Drug Administration approves Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for people ages 12-15 for emergency use, an official said.
As of Monday, more than 145 million Americans age 18 and older, or 56.3% of the total adult population, have had at least one dose of a COvid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Roughly 104.7 million Americans age 18 and older, or 40.6% of the total adult population, are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
Reaching the 70% figure does not mean the U.S. has achieved so-called herd immunity against the virus, the officials noted on the call.
Some health experts have argued that between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated against Covid to achieve herd immunity – the point at which enough people in a given community have antibodies against a specific disease.
But one official said herd immunity is actually more “elusive” and the U.S. should just focus on vaccinating as many people as possible to drive down hospitalizations and deaths.
Rather than try to pin down a specific herd-immunity level, a better approach is simply to encourage as many vaccinations as quickly as possible, the official said.
“Covid-19 is going to vary in its degree and dynamics by community,” according to the official. “So each community must individually strive to reach the goal of vaccinating 70% of his population by July 4.”
Biden, who made Covid his main focus when he took office Jan. 20, previously identified July 4 as a significant date in the United States’ fight against the pandemic.
In his first primetime address to the nation in March, Biden set a goal for Americans to be able to gather in person with their friends and loved ones in small groups to celebrate the holiday.
“If we all do our part, this country will be vaccinated soon, our economy will be on the mend, our kids will be back in school, and we’ll have proven once again that this country can do anything,” Biden said. at that time.
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