President Joe Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million people against COVID-19 in his first 100 days in office depends on an average achieved multiple times by the Trump administration.
Bloomberg News reported that 1.3 million vaccines were given on Thursday, Biden’s first full day of work.
However, on Wednesday, the day Biden took office, a record 1.6 million vaccinations were administered. The seven-figure figure was also reached at 1.3 million on Jan. 11 and 1.1 million on both Jan. 14 and 16, according to the New York Post.
While saying he and his team were focused on a “war effort,” Biden and his top spokesperson were repeatedly pushed by reporters about whether the vaccination target is too low.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Friday why not aim higher, as the average for the past week before Trump left office was 912,497.
“We set that goal before an American got even a single shot,” Psaki said, referring to the vaccination plan Biden announced in early December.
“So the new Biden administration felt it was important to set what was described at the time as a bold and ambitious goal, and many questioned whether we could even achieve that.”
On Thursday, Biden uttered similar words 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! It’s a good start. ‘
Those words came at the end of a briefing in which Biden announced his “full war effort” to defeat the pandemic by enforcing the Defense Production Act, which aims to increase vaccine production and establish nationally funded vaccination sites.
Psaki also blamed the outgoing Trump administration on Friday for creating operational challenges.
“We want to put our own markers and markers in front of the American public so they know we are reaching our goal,” she said. “When we surpass [the 100-day goal], that is amazing.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 17.5 million vaccines had been provided out of the 37.9 million distributed nationwide.
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