WASHINGTON, D.C.: For months, President Joe Biden has laid out goal after goal for taming the coronavirus pandemic and then exceeded his own benchmarks. Now, though, the United States is unlikely to meet his target to have 70 percent of Americans, at least, partially vaccinated by July 4.
The White House has launched a month-long blitz to combat vaccine hesitancy and a lack of urgency to get shots, particularly in the South and Midwest, but it is increasingly resigned to missing the president's vaccination target.
The administration insists that even if the goal isn't reached, it will have little effect on the overall US recovery, which is already ahead of where Biden said it would be months ago.
About 15.5 million unvaccinated adults need to receive at least one dose in the next four weeks for Biden to meet his goal. But the pace of new vaccinations in the United States has dropped below 400,000 people per day - down from a high of nearly 2 million per day two months ago.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday that he still hopes the goal will be met 'and if we don't, we're going to continue to keep pushing.' So far, 14 states have reached 70-percent coverage among adults with about a dozen more on pace to reach the milestone by July 4. But the state-to-state variation is stark.
Fauci said the administration is 'pleading' with states, particularly those with low vaccination rates, to step up their efforts in the coming months, though some states trailing behind are hardly sharing the urgency.
On a conference call on Tuesday, White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients delivered an impassioned call for governors to join the administration in 'pulling out all the stops' on vaccinations this month. 'We need your leadership on the ground - which is where it matters the most - more than ever,' he said.
In Mississippi, which trails the nation with only about 34 percent of its population vaccinated, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has called Biden's goal 'arbitrary, to say the least.'
The vaccination rate in the state has dropped off so sharply that it would take the better part of a year for the state to reach the 70-percent target.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Reeves said he encouraged residents to get vaccinated but that the more important marker was the decline in cases in the state.
That sentiment makes winning over people like University of Mississippi student Mary Crane all the more important to Biden meeting his goal. She hasn't felt much urgency to get the Covid-19 vaccine because she's already had the virus and the family she's living with during the summer break has been vaccinated.
'Initially, it was to wait on everyone else to get it and not take a vaccine,' she said, explaining why she hasn't been vaccinated. 'But now that it's available, there's really not a reason I haven't gotten it, other than I just haven't gotten it.' AP