President Joe Biden is at risk of falling short of a major COVID-19 response goal for the first time, as his administration grapples with vaccine hesitancy and the nationwide spread of the deadly Delta variant.
But the threat of Biden missing his self-imposed July 4 deadline to have at least one vaccine shot in the arms of 70% of the country’s adults could be even more significant after the White House took great care to set and announce a series of achievable goals, creating the perception his team was notching progress. Even if the administration comes up just a few percentage points short, as the current pace suggests, it will hand Republicans something to criticize the White House with despite its relatively strong COVID-19 response poll numbers.
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It seems unlikely Biden will meet his July 4 goal, according to Glen Nowak, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Health and Risk Communication and a former spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden is inoculating roughly 370,000 adults a day but needs to increase that to an average of 848,000 people to cross his own threshold. However, his plans are hindered by adults who are hesitant, uninterested, or unwilling to roll up their sleeve, Nowak told the Washington Examiner.
“Getting large numbers of people in these groups to quickly get vaccinated by an arbitrary date is unlikely to happen,” he said. “Reaching 70% of U.S. adults with at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot will take patience and persistence to achieve.”
John Pitney, a Republican operative-turned-Claremont McKenna College politics professor, agreed Biden’s July 4 goal is “tough” because he is “running into the headwinds of complacency and deliberate resistance,” even after a so-called month of action.
“As the economy opens up and the masks come off, people feel less social and psychological pressure to get the shot,” said the author of The Politics of Autism: Navigating the Contested Spectrum. “And a substantial number of Republicans regard vaccine avoidance as their own declaration of independence.”
Nowak was quick to note that immunizing 65% of adults, a level reached last week, is still a positive outcome. And the July 4 goal, unveiled in May, probably encouraged more people to become inoculated, he contended.
But rather than focus on the nationwide vaccination rate, he advised Biden to start addressing disparities, particularly sluggish states and territories.
“Groups and communities with low rates will be highly vulnerable to infections and illness, as well as enable continued spread of the virus to others,” he said.
Biden opted against mentioning his July 4 goal during a COVID-19 update last Friday. Instead, he touted how he had administered 300 million doses 150 days into his presidency.
“Sixty-five percent … of American adults have gotten at least one shot, including 87% of our seniors,” Biden said. “Just five months ago, we were at only 5% of adult Americans.”
“We’re heading into, God willing, the summer of joy, a summer of freedom. On July 4, we’re going to celebrate our independence from the virus as we celebrate our independence of our nation,” he said. “We want everyone — everyone to be able to do that.”
The president did acknowledge that only 15 states and Washington, D.C., have reported 70% of adults receiving at least one jab, though 26 states and Washington have fully immunized 50% or more.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declared Monday Biden has made “tremendous progress” concerning COVID-19 cases, deaths, shots, and his “ultimate goal” of returning the country to normal. She described his July 4 target as “bold” and “ambitious,” yet admitted the administration’s struggle to connect with 18- to 25-year-olds has hampered the overall effort.
Previewing this week’s COVID-19 task force briefing, Psaki said Biden is collaborating with “trusted voices,” including doctors, members of the clergy, and civic leaders, as well as dispatching himself, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their spouses to talk up the vaccines. Aside from incentivizing the jabs, she added the team is working to make them “as accessible as humanly possible.”
“That’s something we can do from the federal government. We’ve seen that as a barrier,” she said.
Only a week earlier, during his own briefing, COVID-19 coordinator Jeffrey Zients projected confidence Biden would achieve his July 4 goal.
“We’ve made tremendous progress,” he said. “And we’re now nearly 2 in 3 adult Americans, hundreds of thousands of people, are continuing to get their first shot each day.”
“We are going to get to 70%,” Zients added. “And we’re going to continue across the summer months to push beyond 70%.”
In the same briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, revealed Biden is “almost pleading” with states and territories with below 50% of adults inoculated to boost their numbers.
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“If you don’t get vaccinated, you are at risk. If you get vaccinated, you dramatically — dramatically diminish the risk of getting infected and almost eliminate the risk of serious disease,” he said.
