As all politicians do, President Joe Biden has made a number of wild promises to the American people. The specificity of these claims are likely to come back to haunt him, however, as Americans begin got get a good look at the metrics.
One such promise made by Biden has to do with the coronavirus pandemic and, specifically, the rate at which Americans are getting vaccinated. It seems as though the Commander in Chief is poised to fail well short of his July 4th goals, which would be a significant detriment to his approval ratings.
President Biden wanted 70% of US adults at least partially vaccinated by Independence Day. But with July 4 rapidly approaching and vaccination rates slowing down, that goal is in danger, the Washington Post reports. During the April peak, an average of 3.4 million shots were being given per day; that number is now fewer than a million. Last week, just 2.4 million adults got their first shots—and officials would need to get first shots into the arms of 4.2 million adults per week to meet the holiday goal. Per CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Friday that if the pace doesn’t pick up, the US could face “another surge—particularly with variants floating around—that could set us back to the time when we had to shut down things.” The network’s analysis figures that if the current pace of vaccinations continues, the country would hit 70% by mid- to late July.
Biden’s team has appeared to be hellbent on delivering a July 4th narrative that ties independence from the virus to Independence Day – something that his speechwriters have likely been salivating over for months.
