President Biden has unveiled a new 100-day COVID-19 vaccine goal after meeting the previous one several weeks early.
During a news conference on Thursday, Biden announced that his administration's new goal is to administer 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses by his 100th day in office.
"I know it's ambitious, twice our original goal," Biden said. "But no other country in the world has even come close, not even close, to what we are doing. And I believe we can do it."
Biden previously set a goal of administering 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses during his first 100 days in office, a milestone that was ultimately reached 58 days into his administration. Biden set the original 100 million doses goal in December, although by January, The Washington Post reported that "the pace needed to meet" the goal "was already achieved," which raised "questions about whether the new administration's target was ambitious enough," Politico wrote.
While Biden on Thursday described the new goal as "ambitious," it's one the U.S. already looks set to achieve. According to CNN, the seven-day vaccination average in the United States is now roughly 2.5 million doses a day, a pace that "would get the country to more than 205 million COVID-19 vaccine doses" by Biden's 100th day in office. Brendan Morrow