Biden Says U.S. Will Have Enough COVID-19 Vaccine for Every Adult by End of May

By

Elizabeth Crisp is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek, covering the White House and Congress.

She previously was the Washington Correspondent for The Advocate | The Times-Picayune, primarily covering the Louisiana delegation, and had stints covering State Capitols in Louisiana for The Advocate; Missouri for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; and Mississippi for The Clarion-Ledger.

A Mississippi State graduate, Elizabeth spent years covering politics in the United States South before moving to the nation's capital. Through her eclectic career she's covered two Trump impeachments; the 2020 and 2016 presidential races; multiple gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns; presidential debates in 2008 and 2020; and multiple prisoner executions.

She's a member of the White House Correspondents Association and IRE.

You can reach Liz at e.crisp@newsweek.com or securely via elizabethcrisp@protonmail.com.

Catch her on Twitter @elizabethcrisp.

Writers Page
Washington Correspondent
Trust Project Icon Newsweek Is A Trust Project Member

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

The United States is on track to have a large enough vaccine supply for every adult who wants to be inoculated from COVID-19 to be able to get the shot by the end of May, after a rapid ramp-up in production and the approval of a third effective vaccine.

"My hope is by this time next year, we're going to be back to normal—before that," Biden told reporters Tuesday. "It depends upon people continue to be smart and understand that we still have significant losses."

More than 511,000 people in the United States have died of COVID-19. Biden keeps a daily tally tucked inside his jacket pocket each day.

More than half a million Americans already have received at least one dose of two available vaccines that require two shots.

The Biden administration announced this week that pharmaceutical giant Merck will begin manufacturing the newly-approved, one-shot vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson through a unique partnership. That's helped propel the projections from vaccinations for most Americans by the end of July to the new May timeline.

"That's progress—important progress, but it's not enough to have the vaccine supply," Biden cautioned.

He said the federal government also is working to build up mass vaccination centers and on other efforts to get more shots into people's arms.

This story will be updated.

joe biden
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the government's pandemic response, including the recently announced partnership between Johnson & Johnson and Merck to produce more Johnson & Johnson vaccine, at the White House on March 2. JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty
Request Reprint & Licensing Submit Correction View Editorial & AI Guidelines

Top stories

About the writer

Elizabeth Crisp is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek, covering the White House and Congress.

She previously was the Washington Correspondent for The Advocate | The Times-Picayune, primarily covering the Louisiana delegation, and had stints covering State Capitols in Louisiana for The Advocate; Missouri for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; and Mississippi for The Clarion-Ledger.

A Mississippi State graduate, Elizabeth spent years covering politics in the United States South before moving to the nation's capital. Through her eclectic career she's covered two Trump impeachments; the 2020 and 2016 presidential races; multiple gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns; presidential debates in 2008 and 2020; and multiple prisoner executions.

She's a member of the White House Correspondents Association and IRE.

You can reach Liz at e.crisp@newsweek.com or securely via elizabethcrisp@protonmail.com.

Catch her on Twitter @elizabethcrisp.

Writers Page

Elizabeth Crisp is a Washington Correspondent for Newsweek, covering the White House and Congress.

She previously was the Washington Correspondent for ... Read more