58 days in, Biden reaches milestone of 100 million shots within his first 100 days

Running ahead of schedule, President Joe Biden on March 19 deemed his administration's effort to administer 100 million covid-19 vaccine shots within his first 100 days in office a success. 

"I'm proud to announce that tomorrow, 58 days into our administration we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans. That's weeks ahead of schedule, even with the setbacks we faced during the winter storms," said Biden during a March 18 press briefing on the state of vaccinations.  

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's covid-19 vaccine tracker, more than 115 million vaccines have been administered since the U.S. vaccination campaign began in December 2020. About 12 million of those shots were administered before former President Donald Trump left office. 

Once Biden entered the White House, his administration was able to more than double the rate of shots being administered per day. When Biden took office on Jan. 20, the daily tally was about 900,000 shots. From March 12 to March 19, it has increased to an average of 2.5 million shots per day, according to the Washington Post's and Bloomberg's vaccine trackers. 

To boost the vaccine administration rate, Biden has bought additional vaccine doses, used the Defense Production Act to speed up vaccine production, created mass vaccination sites and increased the number of people who can serve as vaccinators. 

Biden first announced his goal for 100 million shots on Dec. 8. His staff later said the president meant the 100 million doses would translate to 50 million people being fully vaccinated with the two-dose regimens of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, which were the only two vaccines slated to be authorized at the time. 

Now, there is another vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, which has also been authorized for use and requires only one dose. 

While the U.S. hasn't yet reached the point of having 50 million people fully vaccinated, the CDC tracker reports that almost 41 million people in the U.S. are. And more than 75 million people have received at least one vaccine dose. 

Since his initial goal for vaccinations has been achieved, it looks like Biden will soon set new objectives, likely building on steps like his announcement last week, asking states to open up vaccine eligibility to all adults by May 1.

"I've always said: That's just the floor. We will not stop until we beat this pandemic," he said during the March 18 news briefing. "Next week, I will announce our next goal to put shots in arms." 

We rate this a Promise Kept.