'Vaccines are safe': Biden urges Americans to get vaccinated after touring Michigan Pfizer plant
Courtney SubramanianWASHINGTON – After touring a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Michigan, President Joe Biden pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated Friday as he sought to highlight his administration's vast undertaking to ramp up the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
"If there's one message to cut through to everyone in this country it's this: the vaccines are safe," he told Pfizer employees after touring the facilities just outside Kalamazoo, Michigan. "Take the vaccine, when it's your turn and available. That's how to beat this pandemic."
The president sought to temper expectations about when the country may see a return to normalcy, citing ongoing logistical challenges and uncertainty posed by the pandemic. The White House said Friday that severe winter weather had gripped much of the U.S. and delayed the distribution of 6 million vaccine doses, the White House said Friday.
"I can't give you a date when this crisis will end. But I can tell you we're doing everything possible to have that day come sooner rather than later," Biden said.
Freezing temperatures and hazardous snowy conditions have slowed vaccine distribution in all 50 states by three days, according to Andy Slavitt, the White House senior adviser on the government's COVID-19 response.
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The administration is aiming to get the backlog of vaccines out this week to stay on pace with its promised timeline of making doses available to 300 million Americans by July, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
The trip, Biden's second visit to a politically crucial Midwest state in a week, highlights Pfizer's central hub where millions of the nation's first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine rolled off the production line in December. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech produce one of two vaccines granted emergency approval for COVID-19.
The president, wearing a navy blue mask, joined Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients to tour the facility's "Freezer Farm," a warehouse containing 350 ultra-cold freezers each containing 360,000 doses of vaccines. The president also met with workers who produce the vaccine. The trip was originally planned for Thursday but was postponed because of inclement weather.
Pfizer said Friday they were seeking an update to their emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration that would allow their COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at normal freezer temperatures, which could ease shipping restrictions and make the vaccine more widely available. Currently, the vaccine is required to be stored between -112°F to -76°F and is shipped in a special thermal container full of dry ice to keep it at its ultra-cold temperatures.
The winter delays come as the Biden administration has gained momentum in production and delivery of the COVID-19 vaccines. Biden reiterated his administration's promise to deliver enough vaccines for every American adult by July, but suggested that could be hampered by unforeseen delays.
"Getting the vaccine and having it available is not the same as putting in someone's arms," he said. “I believe we will be approaching normalcy by the end of the year. God willing, this Christmas will be different than the last. But I can’t make that commitment to you.”
White House officials have acknowledged part of its sweeping vaccine campaign is not only acquiring enough doses but convincing some reluctant Americans to get a shot.
A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about 43% of Black adults and 37% of Hispanic adults said they want to "wait and see" how the vaccine works for others before getting a shot themselves.
Increasing vaccinations is a key part of Biden's expansive COVID-19 relief package, which includes money to reopen schools and businesses and doling out $1,400 checks to lower income Americans. The president has used his first trips outside of the Washington area and his home state of Delaware to pitch Americans on the recovery package, which has a $1.9 trillion price tag congressional Republicans have balked at. He appeared at a CNN town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday.
"We need Congress to pass my American Rescue Plan that deals with the immediate crisis and the urgency," Biden said Friday as he continued to defend his plan.
"Now critics say my plan is too big. That it costs $1.9 trillion – 'That's too much.' Let me ask them, what would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out?"
The president and his aides have dismissed Republicans pushback, arguing the administration is delivering on its promise of bipartisan government through the proposal's broad support among Americans.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found 68% of Americans support passage of the legislation, including 37% of Republican voters, 68% of independents and 97% of Democrats.
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And it's no coincidence Biden decided to take his sales pitch to Wisconsin and Michigan, two states that helped him win the White House and will be key for Democrats in the 2022 midterms, according Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic strategist who now runs the Dornsife Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California.
Shrum pointed to a Morning Consult poll showing Biden's approval rating of 62% with registered voters.
"That's very high for a president in this polarized era and I think they want to keep building on that," he said. "They're not waiting around. They need to act."
But Biden's pitch – made while Congress is out on recess – is running up against the clock. The last round of stimulus relief passed by Congress in January is set to expire March 14. The current bill is making its way through Congress under a special budgetary procedure that enables Democrats to pass it with no Republican support in the Senate. House Democrats said they plan to take up the bill this week.
Despite the weather delays, the Biden administration is barreling ahead with its vaccination production and distribution plans.
Zients, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, told state governors Tuesday the government would begin distributing 13.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine a week, an increase of 57% from when Biden first took office last month.
More:Exclusive: States to receive biggest boost yet in vaccine doses, White House tells governors
He attributed the increase in vaccine doses to states to both planned production increases by vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna as well as to actions taken by the administration, including invoking the Defense Production Act, a wartime authority that can spur commercial production of needed supplies, in this case more vaccines and tests.
The 1,300-acre Michigan facility is the largest manufacturing site in Pfizer’s network as serves as the sole U.S. finishing plant manufacturing the Pfizer vaccine, according to the company.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla announced Friday the company would expand its manufacturing capacity and work with suppliers to help accelerate production of its vaccine. USA TODAY reported this month that Pfizer would halve the time it takes to produce a batch of COVID-19 vaccine from 110 days to an average of 60. The drug giant has agreed to supply 300 million doses by the end of July and has delivered more than 40 million doses to the U.S. government as of Feb. 17.
As of Thursday, nearly 29 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered nationwide, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.
Contributing: Maureen Groppe and Elizabeth Weise
