Biden Announces New Goals at First Press Conference

     President Joe Biden held his first press conference on March 24 in the East Room of the White House. After two months in office, he discussed the impact of his new administration and his goals for the near future.

     Before his inauguration, Biden announced an ambitious plan to combat the spread of coronavirus: to administer one hundred million doses in his first one hundred days. He accomplished this with a month to spare and set his sights on an even higher goal—two hundred million doses in the first one hundred days. Since the press conference, he has met and exceeded this goal by allowing every citizen over the age of sixteen to get vaccinated. He also gave insight on his plan to help low-income and at-risk communities gain access to the vaccine, explaining, “we’ve made a historic investment in reaching the hardest-hit and the most vulnerable communities, the highest-risk communities—as a consequence of the virus—by investing an addition $10 billion in being able to reach them.” Since this announcement, the CDC reported that about 50 percent of adults have received at least one dose of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson vaccines. However, vaccine distribution has since slowed due to the pause in production of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

     In addition to increasing the amount of people vaccinated, Biden also pledged during his campaign to return children to school. He informed the audience that since then, about half of the nation’s kindergarten through eighth grade students are back to school full time, five days a week. He estimated that in the next month, it would be well over the majority of students fully in-person learning. Biden’s estimations proved correct, as now 60 percent of students are reported to have the option of in person learning.

    Biden also discussed the importance of the stimulus checks passed, which have been received by one hundred million Americans. Because of this and the passing of his “American Rescue Plan,” the GDP is expected to exceed six percent growth by the end of the year, putting our economy back on track. “There are still too many Americans out of work,” Biden explained, “too many families hurting, and we still have a lot of work to do. But I can say to you, the American people: Help is here, and hope is on the way.”