President Joe Biden delivered a dose of good news Tuesday afternoon saying that vaccine production is running two months ahead of schedule (watch above). He says “This country will have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end of May, that’s progress, important progress.”
Three weeks ago, I announced we would have enough vaccine supply for all Americans by the end of July.
Now, with our efforts to ramp up production, we will have enough vaccines for every American by the end of May.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2021
This announcement came after the White House announced: “a breakthrough collaboration between Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and the federal government to ramp up vaccine production.” The AP reports:
With the bolstered supply, Biden also announced he would be using the powers of the federal government to direct all states to prioritize vaccinating teachers, and said the federal government would provide the doses directly through its pharmacy program. He challenged states to administer at least one dose of the vaccine to all teachers by the end of March as part of his administration’s efforts to reopen more schools across the nation.
Today, I am directing every state to prioritize educators for vaccination. We want every educator, school staff member, and child-care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of this month.
It’s time to treat in-person learning like the essential service that it is.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2021
Biden sets goal of every K-12 teacher to be able to get at least one vaccine shot by end of March. Says they will be able to sign up at local pharmacies. They might not be able to get an appointment in the first week, but they’re making a push to do this to open all schools ASAP
— Domenico Montanaro (@DomenicoNPR) March 2, 2021