Biden administration likely to miss July 4 vaccine target as new Covid strain surges

“The important question is, does America look like America again? And across the country, it does,” a senior administration official said, arguing that more important than hitting the 70 percent mark is that much of the U.S. has already fully reopened.

White House officials in the coming days are also likely to highlight the sharp drop in Covid-19 cases and deaths across the nation, in a bid to shift focus from President Joe Biden’s initial U.S. vaccination goal to the reality in most places vaccination rates are high enough that people can resume large gatherings.

“We are seeing not just our most vulnerable safe, but our country reopening and Americans are going back to the things that we love,” the senior administration official said.

Biden set the 70 percent goal in early May, declaring at the time that if the nation succeeded, “then Americans will have taken a serious step towards a return to normal.” White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients aggressively sought to reframe Biden’s goal at a Tuesday press conference, stating the 70 percent number was an “aspirational target.” Yet while cases and deaths have fallen significantly in subsequent weeks, so has the vaccination rate.

The U.S. was averaging more than 2 million shots per day in early May; that has since slowed to closer to 1 million, as demand falls and the remaining unvaccinated population proves more difficult to reach. Health officials expressed alarm that the more contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is increasingly taking hold, threatening to drive up infections in pockets of the U.S. where fewer people have received shots. The variant now accounts for more than 20 percent of U.S. cases, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

“Where the country has more work to do is particularly with 18 to 26 year olds,” Zients said. “The reality is many younger Americans have felt like Covid-19 is not something that impacts them, and they’ve been less eager to get the shot. However, with the Delta variant now spreading across the country, and infecting younger people worldwide, it’s more important than ever that they get vaccinated.”

White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said the U.S. must go “well beyond” vaccinating 70 percent of adults to achieve “the ultimate goal of crushing the outbreak completely.” If enough adults do not get vaccinated in certain communities, new localized outbreaks could emerge, he added.

“The Delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate Covid-19,” Fauci said. “Good news: Our vaccines are effective against the Delta variant. Conclusion: We have the tools, so let’s use them.”

In addition to missing Biden’s 70 percent goal, the U.S. also lags the president’s secondary aim of fully vaccinating 160 million Americans by July 4. Just over 144 million adults have been fully vaccinated as of June 21, CDC data show.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy emphasized that the administration will redouble its efforts to reach younger Americans and others who have been more reluctant to get vaccinated.

“We have to go more and more and more local as this vaccination effort proceeds,” Murthy said. “It is through the one-on-one conversations, it’s through making access even easier and readily available to people that we’re going to reach more folks.”