Joe Biden’s top advisers lowered expectations for widespread U.S. access to a coronavirus vaccine within weeks, after he predicted that any American who wanted a shot would soon be able to get one.
“Everybody won’t be eligible this spring,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday at a press briefing.
Asked Monday how soon any American who wants the vaccine to get a shot, and whether that would be in the summer or fall, Biden responded: “No, I think it’ll be this spring. I think we will be able to do that this spring.”
That’s a more optimistic timetable than predicted by Biden’s top medical advisers, including Anthony Fauci and David Kessler, the former Food and Drug Administration chief who now leads the U.S. vaccination program.
“Logistically, by the time you get doses into everyone who might want it, it will take several months, which will go into the end of the summer,” Fauci said in a Fox News interview earlier Tuesday. “I’ve been saying that probably by the end of the summer you could get everybody vaccinated.”
Kessler has said most adult Americans won’t be vaccinated before the third or fourth quarter of the year.
“The president is, of course, pushing his team to deliver results and his goal is to ensure there is a greater availability in the spring and that it continues to improve in the summer,” Psaki said.
—With assistance from Mario Parker.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.