Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said Sunday that Mr. Biden’s goal of hitting an average of 1 million coronavirus vaccine shots per day during his first 100 days in office is sufficiently “ambitious” and “bold.”
Mr. Becerra and other members of Mr. Biden’s team also characterized the benchmark as a starting point or “floor” for where the country needs to be.
The country already is doling out about 900,000 shots per day, on average, over the last week or so. Mr. Biden has repeatedly characterized the Trump administration’s vaccine distribution campaign as a complete failure.
“It’s ambitious. We’re going to need to do even more,” Mr. Becerra said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “In 100 days, getting 100 [million] shots out there on vaccines is incredibly important. It’s ambitious. It’s bold. It’s doable. We have to do it.”
“The plane is in a nosedive, and we got to pull it up. And you’re not going to do that overnight,” Mr. Becerra said on the fight against COVID-19. “But we’re going to pull it up. We have to pull it up.”
White House chief of staff Ron Klain said the 100 million shot target was the “first goal.”
“It’s not our final goal,” Mr. Klain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It’s not the endpoint. It’s just a metric that the American people can watch and measure how we’re doing.”
Dr. Vivek Murthy, Mr. Biden’s pick to be U.S. surgeon general, said on ABC that the 100 million shot mark is a “floor” and not a “ceiling.”
Mr. Biden bristled last week when asked if his vaccine shot target wasn’t ambitious enough.
“When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible,” the president said.” C’mon, gimme a break, man.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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