The incoming Biden administration set a goal of vaccinating 100 million people within the first 100 days of taking office, but we blew past that goal in less than half that time and we've now reached the administration's adjusted goal.
As of yesterday evening, the United States had vaccinated 200 million people with about a week to spare in the first 100 days.
Just under 40% of Americans have had at least one dose, and about a quarter have completed the one- and two-dose vaccinations. The news was announced on Twitter by Cyrus Shahpar, the White House Covid-19 Data Director.
The vaccine rollout has been accelerating as supply increases, with the U.S. giving shots to about 1% of the population every day, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. It took the U.S. 89 days to administer the first 100 million doses, a milestone reached on March 12. The second 100 million has come in just 36 days.
Now, technically, a much smaller number of vaccinations were shot into arms while Trump was still in power, but we could hit 200 million shots by Monday even if you exclude those.
Considering that it took two months to administer 16 million shots under Trump, we probably wouldn't have even reached 100 million by now if he were still in power.
That puts things into perspective for me because I originally did not expect to get shot up until later this summer and possibly even next fall, but I'm scheduled to receive my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine on May 4th.
My friends -- who are all much bigger nerds than I am -- were delighted to point out that I will receive my second shot on Star Wars Day.