PORTAGE, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Saying there will be enough COVID-19 vaccine for every American by the end of July, President Joe Biden Friday afternoon toured the state-of-the art Pfizer plant in Portage which produced and shipped the first doses of the vaccine last year.
At the Michigan plant, Biden walked through an area called the “freezer farm,” which houses some 350 ultra-cold freezers, each capable of storing 360,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. According to the CDC, the two-dose Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine has been administered about 30 million times since it received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration December 11.
During the almost one and a half hour tour, the president says he saw it takes longer for Pfizer to check for safety than it does to make the vaccine itself.
The average number of people getting vaccinated is “nearly double” what it was before Biden took office, he said.
The U.S. is now averaging about 1.7 million vaccinations per day, and Biden says he’s confident the nation will soon exceed 50 million per day.
“All of you here are doing some of the most important work in this facility, right here, that can be done,” Biden said to Pfizer’s manufacturing employees. “You see the devastation of this virus in your family, your community. But you’re stepping up, you’re saving lives.”
Air Force One landed at the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport shortly before 2:00 p.m. Friday, with a motorcade taking Biden to the Pfizer plant about one and a half miles away. He was joined on the tour by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and U.S. Senator Gary Peters.
