Coronavirus Watch: Biden urges Americans to 'please get the vaccine' now that all adults are eligible
Every U.S. adult is eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine starting today.
New Jersey, Massachusetts and Oregon were among a handful of states making the vaccine availability to every adult on Monday, the deadline set by President Joe Biden. Now the White House has turned its attention to persuading Americans to get the jabs.
"Folks, I have good news," Biden said in a video posted on Twitter. "Everybody is eligible as of today to get the vaccine. We have enough of it, you need to be protected, and you need in turn to protect your neighbors and your family.
"So please get the vaccine."
Being anxious about getting a shot is normal, expected and can be resolved with education and role models, experts say.
"People who have questions deserve to have those questions answered. That’s fair and that’s on us," said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.
It's Monday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news you need to know:
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her state could be seeing a drop in infections after leading the nation’s COVID-19 daily case rate for weeks. State health officials said Friday that the seven-day average positivity rate had dropped in recent days to 17.1%, but it remained above a December peak of 14.4%.
- The U.S. has reported 32% of adults are fully vaccinated and over 50% of the U.S. adult population has received at least one vaccine dose, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Pfizer/BioNTech says they will provide 100 million more doses of their coronavirus vaccine to the European Union this year. The EU's executive commission exercised an option to purchase the additional doses, bringing the total number of shots to be delivered to the EU in 2021 to 600 million.
- Chicago public schools, the nation's third-largest district, reopened Monday for the first time since instruction went fully remote amid the pandemic over a year ago.
📈 Today's numbers: The U.S. has more than 31 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 567,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: 141 million cases and 3 million deaths. More than 264 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. and 210 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
See the numbers in your area here, check out where cases are rising here, and see how many vaccines your state has received here.
– John Bacon, Paste BN rewrite chief, @realjohnbacon