Biden Passes 100 Million Vaccination Campaign Pledge 50 Days Early

The Biden administration has passed 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, accomplishing the president’s campaign promise of 100 million in 100 days after just 50 days. It’s still not clear whether vaccine manufacturers will be able to meet their much more ambitious goal of 220 million doses before April, but the government continues to accelerate vaccination efforts, CNBC reports.

Thus far, 13.5% of the adult population in the U.S. has completed vaccination. Almost twice that number has received one of two required shots, at 66 million.

The accomplishment of Biden’s benchmark, which some experts say was a low bar, has the administration issuing hopeful proclamations. In a Thursday address following the signing of Democrats’ COVID-19 relief bill, Biden marked July 4 as the goal date for a return to normalcy.

"Put trust and faith in the government to protect its people," he said. "Government isn't a foreign force in a distant capital. It's us. It's all of us."

Efforts have been supplemented by the inclusion of the J&J single-dose vaccine. Biden announced a 100 million dose purchase from the company, which says the delivery date may be moved up from June to May with production assistance from competitor Merck.

Both Moderna and Pfizer are each now aiming to deliver 200 million doses of their 2-shot vaccines before the end of May.

With production ramping up, officials are turning to other potential bottlenecks. White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Friday that distribution may be the next obstacle to be overcome.

“That is more than enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all adult Americans by the end of May,” he said. “Now we need to ramp up the number of vaccinators, as we’ve been talking about, and the number of places where Americans can get vaccinated.”