President Biden on Thursday stressed the importance of wearing masks until at least 2022 to save lives – despite the statement that the US will have enough vaccines to inoculate 300 million Americans by the summer.
The president told reporters on a visit to the National Institutes of Health complex that he would not take off his mask, even though he was more than 10 feet away from Dr. Anthony Fauci and NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins.
“You know that wearing this mask here can save lives for the next year – a significant number of lives,” Biden said. “And so I apologize if you don’t hear me as clearly as you do, maybe you should.”
Biden warned that the country is still “in the teeth of this pandemic” with new, highly contagious variants spreading.
“January 2021 was the deadliest month we’ve had. We lost more than 100,000 – 100,000 of our fellow citizens. We are on track to cross 500,000 dead Americans next month, ”he said.
“The emerging new species present enormous challenges, and masking is still the easiest way to save lives. But we need everyone to hide.
‘I know it’s annoying, but it’s a patriotic responsibility. We are in the middle of a war with this virus. It’s a patriotic responsibility – not just when you care about your family, but your fellow Americans as well. “
With more than 26 million jabs delivered in Biden’s first three weeks in office, the US is on track to exceed its goal of 100 million doses in its first 100 days.
“This afternoon we signed the final contracts for an additional 100 million Moderna and 100 million Pfizer vaccines. And we are also able to push delivery dates back with 200 million additional vaccines until the end of July – faster than we expected, ”the president said on Thursday.
“That means we are now on track to have enough supplies for 300 million Americans by the end of July.”
Biden also said the government has so far provided $ 3 billion to 37 states, territories and tribes to strengthen existing vaccination centers and open more centers to administer the shots.
“Another point of progress is that we are using more vaccinators. We now allow retired doctors and nurses to come back and administer injections, ”said the president.
“We’re deploying federal vaccinators, and over the past three weeks we’ve put hundreds of new vaccinators in the field and thousands are coming.”
The “end goal” is “defeat COVID-19,” the president said.