U.S. Unlikely To Reach July 4th Covid-19 Vaccine Deadline Goal

The U.S. is far from reaching President Biden’s Covid-19 vaccine goal before the July 4th deadline. Biden set a goal earlier this year for 70% of American adults to have received at least one dose of the vaccine before the national holiday and currently only 65.4% of adults have received their first dose of the vaccine. Demand and rates for the shot have declined which makes experts worry if enough of the population will be vaccinated in time to curb the fall and winter surges that are expected.

When low vaccine rates are combined with the spread of variants like the Delta variant, they become dangerous. CEO of CoxHealth, a healthcare system in Springfield, Missouri said “Almost all of our cases are unvaccinated people that, in my opinion, have put themselves in harm’s way during this pandemic.” The Delta variant is the reason behind a rise in cases in Springfield. To encourage their population to get vaccines, some states like Colorado are calling unvaccinated people directly and providing them the information and help scheduling appointments. Other states have given out millions of dollars with the lottery, free tickets to the zoo and free food coupons.