Biden to reporter: ‘Gimme a break’ on vaccine rollout goal
January 22, 2021
President Joe Biden had a mini-skirmish with a reporter while unveiling his COVID-19 plan Thursday, who asked whether his goal of vaccinating 100 million people in 100 days was too low a bar.
Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked whether Biden should set the goal higher because “that’s basically where the U.S. is right now.”
“When I announced it, you all said it’s not possible,” Biden said.
“Come on, gimme a break, man! It’s a good start, 100 million.”
The Bloomberg vaccine tracker shows the seven-day rolling average for vaccines is 912,497, with 1.6 million doses administered Wednesday.
Later during another press conference, Miller pressed White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about the vaccine goal asking “why isn’t the president shooting a little bit higher given the magnitude of the crisis here?”
“None of us are mathematicians, so I asked our team to do a little math on this,” Psaki said, adding that the Trump administration administered about 17 million shots in 38 days — less than 500,000 per day — and that Biden’s goal is double that.