Oh here’s to a hot and long long looooooooong summer!  

President Biden announced in a town hall on Tuesday that every single American adult who wants a vaccine will be able to receive one by the end of this Summer!

Before even stepping FOOT into office, you may recall that President Biden was already working with Dr. Fauci and experts on an ambitious plan to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. Currently, we’re at approx. 56 million vaccinated and nearly halfway through Biden’s 100 days. We’re actually kinda on track…that’s nice for once!

Last week, President Biden finalized plans to purchase over 200 million vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which in addition to our current dosages would account for 300 million vaccinations across the US. 

BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR NEW YORKERS? 

Let’s look at some stats first…is New York capable of handling the distribution?

•At our current pace, NYC is averaging about 300,000 doses per day. Mayor de Blasio thinks we could be hitting 500,000 doses per day with adequate supply. 

•New sites are being built all across the city including Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, York College in Queens, and 35pop up centers across public housing, churches and community centers. 

•New York City updated its vaccine scheduler in10 different languages including Bengali, Chinese, Spanish, Polish and Russian.

•Once the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approved, NYC will deliver single dosages to homebound seniors. 

•NYC received $50 billion in Stimulus relief aid of which $1.6 Billion will be used for vaccine, testing, tracing, and flexible local health funding ($810M for NYS and $810M for NYC).

In our optimistic minds, we think that we just may make it happen after all! It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the doom and gloom in the news but look at all the small wins that are happening!

WILL VACCINES MEAN WE ARE ALL GOOD?

We still have to continue to wear masks and keep our distance post-vaccination though, medical researchers don’t know for sure whether people who have had the vaccine can still transmit it to others (ie. whether they prevent asymptomatic spread). That testing is still taking place.

 In the meantime, we’ll be daydreaming about sunset drinking at Dumbo House (with our masks on, obviously).