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President Joe Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million people against COVID-19 in his first 100 days in office hinges on an average achieved repeatedly by the Trump administration.
Bloomberg News reported that 1.3 million vaccines were administered on Thursday, Biden’s first full day in office.
However, a record 1.6 million vaccinations were administered on Wednesday, the day Biden took office. The seven-digit mark was also reached with 1.3 million on Jan.11 and 1.1 million on Jan. 14 and 16, according to the New York Post.
While claiming that he and his team were focused on a “war effort,” Biden and his top spokesperson were repeatedly pressed by reporters whether the vaccination target was too low.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Friday why not aim higher since last week’s average before Trump left was 912,497.
“We set this target before any American had received a single blow,” Psaki said, referring to the vaccination plan announced by Biden in early December.
“So the new Biden administration felt it was important to set what was described as a bold and ambitious goal at the time, and many doubted we could even get there.”
Biden spoke similar words on Thursday after being asked if his goal was ambitious enough.
“When I announced it, you all said it wasn’t possible,” Biden said. “Come on, give me a break, man! That’s a good start.”
Those words came at the end of a briefing in which Biden announced his “full-scale war effort” to defeat the pandemic by invoking the Defense Production Act, which aims to increase vaccine production and create nationally funded immunization sites.
Psaki also accused the outgoing Trump administration on Friday of creating operational challenges.
“We want to define our own markers and markers for the American public so that they know we are achieving our goal,” she said. “If we surpass [the 100-day goal], It’s awesome.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 17.5 million vaccines had been administered out of 37.9 million distributed nationwide.
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