President Joe Biden is careful to predict when the country will go back to normal but suggests he has an idea.
During a town hall event hosted by CNN on Tuesday night, host Anderson Cooper asked Biden when he thinks the pandemic will be over and the country will be able to go back to the way it was.
“It’s a high probability that the vaccinations that are available today and the new one, Johnson & Johnson, God willing will prove to be useful, that with those vaccinations the ability to continue to spread the disease is going to diminish considerably,” Biden said.
He added, “So if that works that way, as my mother would say with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, that by next Christmas I think we’ll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today.”
Watch his response below:
President Biden says the country may be back to normal by "next Christmas" #BidenTownHall https://t.co/WKutd79Mqz pic.twitter.com/E4KpxqtVaP
— CNN (@CNN) February 17, 2021
He is hopeful that fewer Americans will have to wear masks and practice social distancing a year from now.
“But we don’t know. So I don’t want to over-promise anything here. I told you when I ran and when I got elected I will always level with you,” Biden continued.
Cooper also asked Biden when every American who wants the vaccine will be able to get it.
“By the end of July of this year. We came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available. By the end of July, we’ll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American,” Biden said.
Watch more of his comments below:
President Biden affirmed that Covid-19 vaccines will be widely available to the general public by the end of July.
— CNN (@CNN) February 17, 2021
"By the end of July we'll have over 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American." #BidenTownHall https://t.co/K3sxmUXFdG pic.twitter.com/xTkje54Aqx
Cooper asked Biden to clarify if July will be when the vaccines are available or if that is when Americans will actually be able to get them.
“They’ll be available,” Biden said.
He later added, “It’s not all of sudden 600 million doses are going to appear. What’s going to happen is it’s going to continue to increase as we move along and we’ll have reached 400 million by the end of May and 600 million by the end of July.”
