Accessibility links

Breaking News

Biden Asks for Patience While Ramping Up Vaccinations


President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the National Institutes of Health, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens at right.
President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the National Institutes of Health, Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens at right.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized his predecessor’s vaccination program and urged Americans to be patient as he fixed it.

"My predecessor — I'll be very blunt about it — did not do his job in getting ready for the massive challenge of vaccinating hundreds of millions," Biden said at the National Institutes of Health.

"We won't have everything fixed for a while. But we're going to fix it," he added.

Biden also announced that the United States had acquired enough vaccines to inoculate 300 million of the 328 million U.S. population by the end of July.

President Joe Biden listens as Kizzmekia Corbett, an immunologist with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, speaks during a visit at the NIH Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. NIH Director Francis Collins is at center.
President Joe Biden listens as Kizzmekia Corbett, an immunologist with the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, speaks during a visit at the NIH Feb. 11, 2021, in Bethesda, Md. NIH Director Francis Collins is at center.

The country is on track to exceed Biden’s goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans within his first 100 days in office.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 46 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.

Earlier Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease expert, said by April, anyone in the United States who wants a COVID-19 vaccination should be able to get one.

The United States has recorded more cases and deaths from COVID-19 than any country in the world — over 27 million and over 470,000, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG