Biden to announce purchase of additional 100 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses
10 March 2021
President Biden will announce on Wednesday afternoon that he has directed his administration to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: Biden's goal is to secure enough supply to vaccinate children and — if necessary — administer booster shots to increase protection against new variants of the virus, according to the Times.
- The announcement comes a week after the president said the U.S. will have enough vaccines available for 300 million adults by the end of May.
- Unlike Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines, the J&J shot only requires one dose. The U.S. government had previously purchased 100 million doses from the company.
The state of play: The doses are expected to be delivered in the second half of the year, two officials told the Times.
- Biden will make the announcement Wednesday afternoon during his meeting in the White House with the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck.
- The Biden administration said last week that the two rival pharmaceutical companies would be teaming up to boost supply of J&J's one-shot vaccine.
The big picture: The U.S. has administered more than 93 million vaccine doses as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a Bloomberg tracker. More than 18% of Americans have received their first dose, with states currently administering vaccines at a rate of about 2.1 million per day.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.