US to narrowly miss July 4 vaccination goal -- here's what's next
The US won't hit the Biden administration's goal of getting 70% of adults vaccinated by Independence Day, says a White House official. More young adults need to get shots.
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The US will narrowly miss the Biden administration's goal of getting 70% of adults age 18 and older at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by July 4, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The administration has a new goal instead: to get 70% of adults age 27 and up at least one shot through the July 4 weekend, a White House official told the Post. This new goal highlights an effort to get more young adults vaccinated, as a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that vaccine coverage among younger adults (those aged 18-29 years) was "lower and increased more slowly" compared with other groups. Seventy percent of adults aged 30 and older have received at least one shot, NPR reported.
At a press briefing Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki moved away from the 70% goal President Joe Biden set in March, referring to it as an "incentive" and a "drive for people to see what the benefit would be to getting vaccinated." She highlighted that a return to prepandemic normalcy depends on individual community decisions and vaccination rates.
"Communities are going to make their own decision," Psaki said. "Seventy percent was a bold, ambitious goal we set to continue to drive to get more people vaccinated across the country."
According to CDC data from June 21, 65.4% of adults aged 18 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is 4.6 percentage points short of the July 4 goal. The same data shows that 150 million people are fully vaccinated in the US.