President Joe Biden has unveiled a five-point plan to blunt the spread of the highly contagious delta COVID-19 variant as the United States struggles to inoculate the hesitant.
“It seems to me, it should cause everyone to think twice,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House of the rising variant. “It should cause reconsideration, especially with young people who may have thought that they didn’t have to be vaccinated.”
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After falling short of his target to administer at least 70% of adults with one shot by July Fourth, Biden did not announce a new timeline for an updated goal. Instead, he touted how 182 million people have received one dose, including roughly 90% of seniors and 70% of those older than 27 years of age.
“By the end of this week, we’ll have reached the mark of more than 160 million fully vaccinated Americans,” he said.
The White House will keep depending on 42,000 pharmacies, where people with questions can ask a familiar pharmacist, according to Biden. The administration, too, will focus on family doctors and healthcare providers catering to children and young people.
“We’re also intensifying our efforts to meet people where they are, outside of their neighborhoods, pharmacies, and doctors’ offices,” he said.
“This includes continuing to work with employers to make vaccination shots available at work and/or give their employees paid time off to get vaccinated at a nearby facility,” he added, including at mobile clinics.
The White House is forming COVID-19 surge response teams, as well, as the delta variant threatens to cause outbreaks among unvaccinated people, Biden revealed. Experts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be among those called on to lead the groups.
“They’re going to help states that have particular problems prevent, detect, and respond to the spread of the delta variant among unvaccinated people in communities with low vaccination rates,” he said, citing federal human, medicinal, and testing resources. “Let’s finish the job. Let’s finish it together.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki hinted a new goal would not be set, insisting only that the administration’s efforts would proceed “person by person and community by community.”
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“I wouldn’t predict a federal mandate,” she said. “But certainly, we’re already seeing that take place in communities across the country.”
