On the day that many in the U.S. are considering the one-year anniversary of the unofficial beginning of the pandemic, President Biden announced that he would be directing states to make all adults eligible for the covid-19 vaccine by May 1st. That’s right—everyone’s getting jabbed, baby!
Biden’s announcement comes just as the U.S. is reaching record highs in daily vaccine distribution, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly administering 2.9 million vaccines last Saturday—well over the administration’s goal of 2 million vaccine shots per day. This also puts the Biden administration on track to reach their goal of giving 100 million people at least one vaccine shot by the president’s 60th day in office, just 10 days from now. Opening up vaccine distribution to all adults by May 1st might seem like an overly ambitious goal, but after last week’s revelation that the U.S. was on track to produce enough vaccines for every adult in the country by the end of May, it’s actually very possible. Even if the current rate of vaccinating 2.2 million adults per day doesn’t increase at all over the next couple of months (which is unlikely), the country is on track to fully vaccinate over 140 million people by May 1st—more than half the U.S. adult population.
Of course, the announcement of something so good couldn’t come without a slice of good ole American propaganda, evidenced by the fact that Biden’s goal date for getting “closer to normal” is July 4th. As the President put it during his Thursday evening address, “it will make this Independence Day truly special — where we not only mark out independence as a nation but our independence from this virus.” I won’t lie, I laughed.
However, Biden also cautioned that “if we don’t stay vigilant, and the conditions change, then we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track. And please, we don’t want to do that again. We’ve made so much progress. This is not the time to let up.”
As of today, the covid-19 death toll is 527,726—and it’s increasing every day. Whether you’re currently eligible to get vaccinated or will have to wait until that magical date of May 1st, please get the vaccine once it’s possible. If you don’t do it for yourself,