The Biden Administration isn’t letting up with its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. President Joe Biden spoke from the White House on Tuesday to outline new vaccination goals and their focus areas. In his announcement, the president said his administration is working to “make it easier than ever” to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Our goal by July 4th is to have 70 percent of adult Americans with at least one shot and 160 million Americans fully vaccinated,” President Joe said.
According to the administration, this means almost 100 million shots will be issued over the next 60 days. In order to meet that goal, the president outlined key new efforts that focus on three areas.
The first area of focus includes “immediately” vaccinating adolescents between ages 12-15 once the Food & Drug Administration gives their authorization. CBS News reported that the FDA is “expected to authorize Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine” for adolescent use as soon as early next week. President Joe clarified that the FDA is independently making that decision.
“I want American parents to know, if that announcement comes, we are ready to move immediately … to make about 20,000 pharmacy sites across the country ready to vaccinate those adolescents as soon as the FDA grants its OK,” President Joe Biden said.
The second focus area involves making the vaccines widely accessible to Americans. The administration is directing about 40,000 pharmacies that are participating in the federal vaccination program to offer walk-in hours starting this week. President Joe also said vaccines will be shipped directly to pediatricians in the coming weeks. This way parents and their children can get the vaccine from “a provider they trust the most — easy, fast and free.”
The third area of focus is convincing doubting Americans to get the vaccine. Federal Emergency Management Agency resources will be redirected to support “pop-up clinics, smaller community vaccination sites and more mobile clinics,” according to CNN. These spaces will be “more convenient” to those who remain unvaccinated.
“I think at the end of the day, most people will be convinced by the fact that their failure to get the vaccine may cause other people to get sick, and maybe die,” Joe said. “And so, in one sense, it’s easier because I don’t have to put together this massive logistical effort. But in the other sense, it’s harder — it’s beyond my personal control.”
Watch President Joe Biden’s address below:
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