Biden: More than 100,000 lives saved by COVID-19 vaccination in the United States

Efforts to vaccinate the U.S. population against the coronavirus have saved more than 100,000 lives and prevented more than 450,000 hospitalizations. U.S. President Joe Biden said this on Monday in a speech at the White House.

“According to experts at the Yale University School of Public Health, the pace of our vaccination efforts has saved more than 100,000 lives and prevented more than 450,000 hospitalizations,” Biden said.

“This is critical progress, but we need to move faster,” the U.S. leader added.

He said 71% of U.S. residents ages 12 and older have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine so far. “That’s more than 200 million Americans. More than 170 million people are now fully vaccinated,” the U.S. president clarified.

Biden welcomed the decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finally approve for use the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. According to the head of state, this is a “key milestone” in the fight against the coronavirus.

“If you are one of the millions of Americans who said they would not vaccinate until the vaccine had final FDA approval, it has happened. The moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived. It’s time for you to go and get vaccinated, get it today. FDA approval is the gold standard.”

In addition, he urged private company executives to require employees to be vaccinated.