Biden Now Promises Vaccines For Every Adult By Mid-May — Weeks Earlier Than Expected - Forbes

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Topline

The United States will have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover every adult by mid-May, President Joe Biden said Saturday, earlier than the end-of-May deadline Biden set on Tuesday — an ambitious goal that will require manufacturing to speed up significantly.

Key Facts

In a White House speech celebrating the Senate’s passage of a $1.9 trillion economic relief bill, Biden announced the country should have enough doses on-hand to cover all U.S. adults by mid-May, though it will take longer for all of those doses to reach patients.

Biden’s vaccine predictions have grown more optimistic in recent weeks: He started his term promising enough doses for all U.S. adults by the end of the summer, his timeline crept up to July after the government ordered more doses last month, and he predicted late May earlier this week after drugmakers promised to speed up manufacturing.

Crucial Quote

“I believe we’ll have enough .. by the middle of May,” Biden said. “It’s going to take longer to get it into their arms, but that’s how much vaccine we’ll have.”

Big Number

116.4 million. That’s how many vaccine doses Pfizer and Moderna have delivered so far, enough to cover just under 60 million Americans, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures released Saturday.

What To Watch For

Delivering enough vaccines for all 260 million U.S. adults by mid-May will require drugmakers to pick up the pace. Pfizer and Moderna have promised to deliver a total of 220 million doses by the end of this month, enough to cover 110 million people, and Johnson & Johnson will deliver 20 million doses of its one-shot vaccine by late March. After that, all three companies have pledged to ramp up production, but their timelines are unclear.

Key Background

After a slow start in December, the United States’ vaccination effort has sped up considerably in recent weeks. The number of weekly doses allotted to states has gradually increased as manufacturers add more capacity, and states have sped up distribution by broadening eligibility for vaccines and opening more clinics. More than 1.8 million shots are now administered every day on average, double the rate for mid-January.