Plunging vaccination rates are threatening President Joe Biden’s goal to have 70 percent of American adults receive their first COVID-19 shot by Independence Day.
Less than 500,000 adults are now being vaccinated each day, down from a peak of 3.4 million in April, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Bloomberg.
As of Monday, 51.5 percent of the U.S.
population – or 170.8 million – have received an initial dose, which includes adult and children between ages 12 and 17.
When counting just adults, 63.5 percent have had at least one jab.
In order to reach the 70 percent goal by July 4, about 16 million more adults will need to have their first shot in the next 28 days.
That is now going to be an extremely hard task, with the country missing preliminary targets by almost two million doses last week.
Only 2.4 million adults who got their first shots last week, reported.
Officials calculate that number needs to be 4.2 million a week to meet Biden’s July 4 goal.
The slowdown is throughout the U.S., with every state’s vaccination rates are down by at least two-thirds since their peaks. The South, especially, is dragging down national numbers with seven states not even vaccinating half of all adults.
Alabama, for instance, has only given 45.9 percent of its adult residents their first dose of the vaccine, and last week the state had ‘just four people per 10,000 residents get vaccinated,’ according to the newspaper.
Plunging vaccination rates are threatening President Joe Biden ‘s goal to have 70 percent of American adults receive their first COVID-19 shot by Independence Day
Less than 500,000 adults are now being vaccinated each day, down from a peak of 3.4 million in April
Most states on the East and West coasts, however, are surging ahead of expectations.
Thirteen states – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – have already vaccinated 70 percent of adults.
Several others, including New York, California and Oregon, have already had more than 60 percent of adults receive their first vaccine dose and will likely reach Biden’s target.
To get 16 million more Americans to roll up their sleeves, the president has announced incentives including free Anheuser-Busch beer for 200,000 people and a visit to the White House.
Other states have tried stunts like lotteries for cash prizes.
Additionally, pharmacies that have teamed up with the White House will be open for 24 hours on certain days and centers will be offering free childcare for parents
But a new poll recently found that these incentives may not convince the one in five Americans who do not want to get the COVID-19 shot.
Only 19 percent said they are somewhat likely to change their minds and two percent are very likely to decide to get vaccinated.
Of this group, the most common reasons for why they did not want to get immunized include uncertainty over whether or not the vaccine is safe and belief that, even if they get the virus, they will not get seriously ill.