Biden Orders Purchase Of Additional 200 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

In a flurry of COVID-19 announcements and news, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that the U.S. will buy an additional 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in an attempt to get a majority of the country vaccinated.

Biden senior adviser Cedric Richmond told CNN, “The sad part is the last administration didn’t leave anything, didn’t leave a plan.”

In an address, Biden noted that with these additional doses, nearly the entire U.S. population could be vaccinated by the end of summer or early fall. One hundred million of the upcoming shots will be from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million will be from Moderna.

Along with the new incoming vaccine doses, Biden announced that the weekly supply of vaccines for states as well as tribes and territories like Puerto Rico will increase. The existing “one week look ahead system” for announcing vaccine supply will now provide insight for three weeks of supply details.

The Biden announcement comes soon after the White House announced its goal to have 1.5 million people vaccinated a day in the U.S. Before being sworn in, Biden’s goal for his first 100 days in office was to administer 100 million shots. If the country maintains this pace, the administration is likely to reach their goal.

On Wednesday, the CDC confirmed that more than 3.3 million Americans had already received the required two vaccine doses.