Idaho governor not so sure on President Biden’s vaccine projections
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BOISE — President Joe Biden promised enough COVID-19 vaccine for every adult by May, but Idaho Gov. Brad Little is not so sure.
“I don’t think the math adds up,” Gov. Little said during an Idaho Press Club legislative headliner on Wednesday.
Biden made his announcement Tuesday, the same day Little and other governors spoke with White House COVID Coordinator Jeff Zients. Little said numbers given during the call do not reach the need to have a vaccine into the arm of every adult Idahoan by May. He said the Gem State will have about 120% more doses in May than what it has now.
“That isn’t going to nearly get us to that point the president has talked about,” Little said. “He may know something that I don’t. I wish he’d share it with myself and the rest of the governors.”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that 51.7 million or 20.3% of adults nationwide have received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. It leaves manufacturers needing to provide more than 200 million doses for adults across the country.
Biden said a new partnership between Johnson & Johnson and a competitor, Merck, to produce Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine would meet the demands. Official numbers have not been shared. Johnson & Johnson said Saturday that it expects to ship out 20 million doses across the country by the end of March and 100 million by the end of the summer, according to the Associated Press .
“This is the type of collaboration between companies we saw in World War II,” Biden said. “We also invoked the Defense Production Act to equip two Merck facilities, to the standards necessary, to safely manufacture the J&J vaccine. … Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine manufacturing facilities will now begin to operate 24/7.”
Biden blamed the Trump administration for not contracting enough vaccine. He said that through the new efforts, Americans will get the vaccine sooner.
“We’re making progress from the mess we inherited,” Biden said. “We’re moving in the right direction, and today’s announcements are a huge step in our effort to beat this pandemic. But I have to be honest with you: This fight is far from over.”
When EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the White House on Wednesday about how the United States would reach Biden’s projections, they referred us to this press briefing. Officials in the briefing did not give specific production numbers to meet the millions of doses needed.
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