Biden: We'll Meet Our 100-Day Goal on Day 58

'Way ahead of schedule'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 19, 2021 2:40 AM CDT
Biden Says US Will Hit 100M Vaccination Goal on Friday
President Biden speaks about COVID-19 vaccinations from the East Room of the White House, Thursday, March 18, 2021.   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The US is closing in on President Biden's goal of injecting 100 million coronavirus vaccinations weeks ahead of his target date, the White House says. The president announced Thursday that the US is on the cusp of meeting his 100-day injection goal "way ahead of schedule." "I'm proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration, we will have met our goal," Biden said. He promised to unveil a new vaccination target next week, as the US is on pace to have enough of the three currently authorized vaccines to cover the entire adult population just 10 weeks from now, the AP reports. The 100 million-dose goal was first announced on Dec. 8, days before the US had even one authorized vaccine for COVID-19, let alone the three that have now received emergency authorization.

Still, it was generally seen within reach, if optimistic. By the time Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, the US had already administered 20 million shots at a rate of about 1 million per day, bringing complaints at the time that Biden's goal was not ambitious enough. He quickly revised it upward to 150 million doses in his first 100 days. Now the US is injecting an average of about 2.2 million doses each day—and the pace is likely to dramatically rise later this month in conjunction with an expected surge in supply of the vaccines. According to data from the CDC, injections of 96 million doses have been reported to the agency since Biden’s inauguration, but those reports lag the actual date of administration. Vaccination trend lines pointed to Biden breaking the 100 million mark on Thursday, with the numbers likely to be confirmed by the CDC as soon as Friday. (The administration has plans to "loan" 4 million doses to Canada and Mexico.)

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