Day 91: Next Phase
The White House is prepping for a slowed interest in vaccines. President Joe Biden announced today incentives to reach workforce Americans that include paid time off for vaccination appointments and any sick days needed afterwards.
“Back in December, I set a goal of administering 100 million shots,” he reminded, “…At the time, some told us that it couldn’t be done, it was awfully ambitious. But we did it in 58 days because of the incredible staff I have.” Biden says they expect to reach his new goal of 200 million vaccinations in 100 days tomorrow, a full week ahead of schedule.
He said it is “a goal unmatched in the world or in prior mass vaccination efforts in American history,” and that some experts estimate that the effort has already saved tens of thousands of American lives. “We’ll never know exactly, but we know it saved lives that would have otherwise been lost.”
Biden added that the feat was not achieved by the White House alone. “I’m proud of the American people: the volunteers who showed up to staff vaccination sites in their neighborhoods, drove senior citizens to get their shots; FEMA; the military, the National Guard; state and local health departments and providers running sites safely and efficiently; retired healthcare workers coming back to give lifesaving shots to people in their communities.
“This is an American achievement; a powerful demonstration of unity and resolve — what unity will do for us; and a reminder of what we can accomplish when we pull together as one people to a common goal.”
The next phase is getting vaccines to the younger and workforce populations who weren’t eligible for a vaccine until this week. Hundreds of Americans are still dying from Covid everyday, he said.
“I’m calling on every employer, large and small, in every state, to give employees the time off they need, with pay, to get vaccinated and any time they need, with pay, to recover if they are feeling under the weather after the shot.”
He added, getting vaccinated is a “patriotic duty” for which “[n]o working should lose a single dollar from their paycheck.”
The incentives may also curb hesitancy among minority populations who have a general distrust for the American healthcare system and who are protesting what — in recent days — has been daily police-involved killings or civilian mass shootings. Biden nodded to the “exhaustion” that Black Americans, especially, are suffering, in his remarks after the guilty verdict was read in the Derek Chauvin trial.
Another Black teen, Ma’Kiah Bryant was shot in Columbus, OH around the same time.
Today, Biden recognized employers like Krogers for setting an example of offering $100 to employees to get vaccinated, pushing the rates from 50 to 75 percent vaccinated among the grocery store’s associates.
His message was in stark contrast to the now viral exchange between Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Stacey Abrams and Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), during a Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on voting rights, yesterday.
Abrams argued that provisions of the new bill that Governor Brian Kemp (R) signed in Georgia last month is racist and limits access to the ballot. White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki has said that the legislation was built on a lie.