President Joe Biden visited the Atlanta headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday to thank public health workers racing to contain the coronavirus pandemic and declare that “science is back.”
The visit also coincided with a milestone of administering 100 million coronavirus vaccinations since Biden took office. He promised to hit that mark within his first 100 days in office, and he cleared the hurdle in 58 days.
As the president showered CDC workers with gratitude and praise, Biden also warned that the COVID-19 outbreak could be a harbinger of what’s to come in an increasingly globalized society.
“I hope this is the beginning of the end of not paying attention to what’s going to come again and again and again. We can build all the walls we want, we’ve got the most powerful armies in the world,” he said. “But we cannot stop these viruses, other than being aware where they are and to move quickly on them when we find them.”
PHOTOS: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris visit Atlanta
Biden’s visit to the CDC is part of a trip that was initially intended to celebrate the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, though it was refocused to show support for the Asian American community after this week’s deadly shootings of eight people, including six women of Asian descent, at metro Atlanta spas.
Still, Biden touted the sweeping aid measure during his remarks to CDC staffers, calling it a “bipartisan effort” even though it squeezed through Congress without any Republican support.
“This is a bipartisan effort. It isn’t showing itself in the way senators and congressmen vote, but the public’s” support exists, he said, citing polls that showed broad support for the initiative. “The public is thankful because it’s about science,” the president said. “That’s what they understand.”
The trip comes roughly a year after then-President Donald Trump visited the CDC as the outbreak worsened, when he sought to play down the risk of the virus. The coronavirus’ toll now exceeds 500,000 U.S. deaths.
The U.S. is in a race to vaccinate as many people as possible amid the spread of more infectious strains of coronavirus such as the U.K. variant. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in a media briefing Friday that the U.K. strain likely makes up about 20% to 30% of new cases.
And that figure is growing, Fauci said.
Cases nationally have plateaued after a sharp decline.
To date, more than 118 million doses of vaccines have been administered nationwide, according to CDC data.
Georgia ranks 50th out of 50 states in the rate of vaccines administered, according to data the CDC reported Friday.
In a news release, Gov. Brian Kemp’s office blamed a data reporting error through the federal pharmacy program that he has said shorts the state at least 250,000 administered doses. But such a data error might well undercount reporting nationally, and it’s unclear whether the error would significantly improve Georgia’s ranking.
Kemp said Friday that Georgia surpassed 3 million doses administered to date, including 1 million among people 65 and older. The governor’s office says 72% of seniors have received at least one dose, slightly better than the 67% average for seniors nationally.
Georgia expanded eligibility for vaccines this week to people 55 and older and for those with a long list of pre-existing conditions, including asthma, cancer, heart disease and being overweight or obese. The state also opened five additional mass vaccination sites and now operates nine facilities in all.
The Georgia Department of Public Health data dashboard reports the state has a surplus of about 650,000 doses of vaccine, while the CDC, which reports a significantly higher number of delivered doses, said the state has a surplus of more than 1.5 million doses.
Joining Biden at the CDC was Vice President Kamala Harris, who echoed his praise for the workers there.
“We are here to say thank you because it’s not easy, and you’re making difficult decisions right now,” Harris said.
“You do this work on behalf of people you will never meet, on behalf of people who will never know your names, because you care about this country.”
