President Joe Biden will lay out a five-point plan to immunize more people against COVID-19 after the White House missed its July 4 goal.
The Biden administration proposal includes targeted “door to door” vaccine safety and access outreach and making it easier for people to get their shots through their doctor’s offices, including children during their “back to school” checkups, according to a White House official.
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The administration also wants to ramp up the use of its mobile clinics and secure paid time off for employees to be jabbed, collaborating with state and local leaders across the public and private sectors.
Biden will detail his plan during a Tuesday afternoon address, touting the “strong progress” of his “robust vaccination campaign” despite falling short of his goal to inoculate 70% of adults with one shot against the virus, the White House official said.
“By the end of the week, the U.S. will be nearing 160 million people fully vaccinated, which is critically important as fully vaccinated people are protected against the delta variant,” the official added.
Biden celebrated July Fourth at the White House on Sunday evening with a speech declaring the country was “emerging from the darkness of years, a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain, fear, and heartbreaking loss.” He went on to encourage people who had yet to roll up their sleeves to do so as “the best defense against these variants.”
Jeff Zients, Biden’s COVID-19 czar, had earlier appeared on the Sunday morning news shows to underscore that “two out of three adult Americans, those over 18, have received at least their first dose of the vaccination.”
“Younger people, particularly those in their 20s, have felt less vulnerable to the disease and, therefore, less eager to get shots,” he told ABC. “They were made eligible later, so they have not been eligible as long, and we continue to see hundreds of thousands of young people vaccinated each week.”
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Biden announced the target of giving 70% of adults at least one shot by July 4 in May. Despite a strategy of setting achievable goals to create a perception of success, the White House admitted last month it was on track to fall short of the benchmark.
