COOPER: That’s been one of the problems is just getting enough people. You have to have people who can inject it into people’s arms. You need the needle, and you need mechanisms to be able to get it in. And what’s going to happen is: It’s going to continue to increase as we move along, and we’ll have - we’ll have reached 400 million by the end of May and 600 million by the middle of - by the end of July.Īnd the biggest thing, though, as you remember when you and I - no, I shouldn’t say it that way, “as you remember” - but when you and I talked last, we talked about - it’s one thing to have the vaccine, which we didn’t have when we came into office, but a vaccinator - how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm? So you need the paraphernalia. THE PRESIDENT: In other words, it’s not all of a sudden 600 million doses are going to appear. THE PRESIDENT: Well, no, a lot will be being vaccinated in the meantime. COOPER: So if, end of April - excuse me, end of July, they’re available to actually get them in the arms of people who want them, that will take - what? - a couple more months? And that’s - and they’re - and we got them to move up the time because we used the National Defense Act to be able to help the manufacturing piece of it to get more equipment and so on. We’ve moved out - went to the Pfizer and Moderna, and said, “Can you produce more vaccine and more rapidly?” They not only agreed to go from 200 to 400 - and they’ve agreed to go to 600 million doses. We’ve upped that, in the first three weeks that we were in office, to significantly more than that. I mean, there was nothing in the refrigerator, figuratively and literally speaking, and there were 10 million doses a day that were available. THE PRESIDENT: Here, look, we - what we did - we got into office and found out the supply - there was no backlog. COOPER: When you say - (applause) - when you say “by the end of July,” do you mean that they will be available or that people will have been able to actually get them? Because Dr. We have now - by the end of July, we’ll have over 600 million doses - enough to vaccinate every single American. We have - we came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available. THE PRESIDENT: By the end of July of this year.
When is every American who wants it going to be able to get a vaccine? There’s this potential threat - potential surge from the variants coming down the pike potentially. COOPER: New cases of COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen by half in the last month, so have new cases. And we’re going to get as many questions in as possible.īefore we get to that, I just want to start with a couple of just big-picture questions about the pandemic and where we are right now. We have some folks who voted for you, some folks who did not. So we got a lot of questions in the audience. COOPER: I saw a picture of you with your grandson recently. No, no, everybody knows I like kids better than people. He’s nine and a half months, so I’m very happy. THE PRESIDENT: And you know you enjoy being home with the baby more. How are you? (Applause.) Good to be back, man. With that, I want to welcome the 46th President of the United States, President Joe Biden. We will however be keeping our distance from one another, and the audience is very limited, socially distanced, and all wearing masks when they’re seated. Over the past several weeks, I have repeatedly tested negative for coronavirus - as recently as yesterday and this morning as well. The President and I will not be wearing masks on this stage. Some of the questioners here voted for him. The President will be answering questions from the American people on his first official trip since taking office. Tonight, we’re going to be answering questions from the American people. President Biden is just four weeks into his presidency and facing multiple crises: nearly 500,000 of our fellow citizens - Americans - have died from COVID-19, millions out of work right now, and a nation dangerously divided. This is a CNN Presidential Town Hall - the first with President Joe Biden. We are live in the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Get Involved Show submenu for “Get Involved””.The White House Show submenu for “The White House””.Office of the United States Trade Representative.Office of Science and Technology Policy.Executive Offices Show submenu for “Executive Offices””.Administration Show submenu for “Administration””.