President Joe Biden on Tuesday afternoon was scheduled to make a speech on the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, with the remarks coming after his administration fell short of his goal of having 70% of U.S. adults at least partially vaccinated by the Fourth of July.
Biden is due to speak at 2:45 p.m. Eastern in Washington about “the COVID-19 response and the vaccination program,” the White House said in a statement.
He plans to talk about the importance of every eligible American getting vaccinated, especially as COVID’s more transmissible delta variant spreads, according to a White House official.
The official said Biden will highlight five areas that the administration’s vaccination program is focusing on: targeted outreach to communities, expanded efforts with mobile clinics, expanded efforts at workplaces, a renewed emphasis on getting vaccines to more primary care doctors and stepped-up pushes to get vaccines to pediatricians so children age 12 and up can get vaccinated as they go for back-to-school checkups or prepare for fall sports.
The percentage of U.S. adults who have received at least one vaccine dose stands at 67.1%, according to the latest data from a tracker run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden’s speech comes as Israel says the shot developed by BioNTech SE
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On Sunday, the president mixed the country’s Independence Day party with a celebration of freedom from the worst of the pandemic, as he described getting vaccinated as “the most patriotic thing you can do.”
On Wednesday, Biden is slated to visit Crystal Lake, Ill., to promote his American Families Plan, a proposal aimed at domestic priorities like education and child care that would be paid for by extra taxes on the wealthy.
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