Biden Administration To Procure 200 Million More Vaccine Doses

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Jan 26, 2021 09:17 PM EST

The Biden administration is set to order additional 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to provide enough doses for about every American to get fully vaccinated by the end of the summer.

The government is seeking to procure 100 million doses and the other hundred from Moderna. The orders were said to be made available over the summer.

300 Million Americans to be Vaccinated

In addition, this would total to 400 million combined doses the companies had already pledged to provide to the U.S., according to President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

Biden added that he expects to be able to confirm the said purchase soon, according to an NBC News report.

"It will be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans to beat the pandemic," Biden was quoted on a report.

The said procurement will lessen the country's dependence on getting additional vaccines on the market from other manufacturers. The previous administration under former president Donald Trump had passed up on purchasing more vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna.

The Trump administration was instead relying on additional vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca becoming available to the market. Johnson & Johnson said that it will release data for its single-dose vaccine in the coming days.

A senior administration official said that they cannot speak to the Trump administration but they aim to acquire enough supply as they need to vaccinate Americans, given the nature of this emergency.

State Governors on Additional Supply

Several state officials working for Democratic and Republican governors expressed relief about the increased supply of vaccine, including the decision to give state leaders a three-week schedule.

Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said that the increase in supply and the new schedule is very helpful.

Lamont said that supply has been a bit of a problem for a month or so now, adding that they could not plan more than a week in advance, according to a CBS News report.

Meanwhile, there are also complaints from some governors about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's current system for vaccine distribution, saying it was setting up unfair comparisons between states and cities.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that CDC's system is misleading as some states are holding second doses of the vaccine in reserve for people who have received their first shot. Meanwhile, other states are choosing to give out doses as they receive them.

Other governors asked if the CDC could better explain to the public the bit-by-bit breakdown of a state's vaccine allotment, such as how much is considered a first dose, and how much is considered a second dose.

Governors said that by doing so, they would help temper and inform the public's understanding of how quickly the shots are being handed out.

The CDC reported, as of Tuesday, that just over half of the 44 million doses distributed to states have been put in people's arms.

Meanwhile, Biden blamed the previous administration for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, saying the program was received by his team in a worse shape than they expected, according to Spectrum News 1 report.