And of course, even with a 16% increase, vaccine distribution will fall massively short of the number states need to make a dent in the crisis any time soon.
There has so far been no comment on Biden's announcement of the purchase of 200 million more doses by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the two firms confirmed that have received emergency authorization for their vaccines.Cleaning up the messagingBiden's announcement on Tuesday also represented some political triage, given some messy and sometimes conflicting messaging about targets and vaccine supply in recent days by the President and his staff.While professing optimism on Tuesday, Biden was careful to temper expectations, warning: "We didn't get into this mess overnight and it's going to take months for us to turn things around."His comments reflected the political hazard inherent in setting timelines and making predictions about a pernicious and unpredictable pandemic, especially in the middle of a race between the mass deployment of vaccines and mutations of the virus that could challenge their effectiveness.And Biden's pledge, that follows criticism that his promise of 100 million administrated vaccine doses in his first 100 days was insufficiently ambitious, is also dependent on many other factors beyond his direct control.Experience has shown that having vaccine available does not mean it is being administered.Such data has led some top health experts in recent days to question whether at some point the key problem will not be a shortage of vaccines but a deficit of willing recipients.
"Day Seven: we have found a way to secure vaccine supply adequate to provide a dose for EVERY adult by summer," White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain tweeted on Tuesday.