Surgeon General says rate of vaccine rollout is increasing

Surgeon General Jerome Adams pushed back against criticism of the Trump administration’s rollout of the vaccines for COVID-19 on Sunday, pointing to improvements that authorities have made nationwide in their efforts to vaccinate as many as possible.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Adams addressed remarks from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who called the rate of vaccine distribution in the U.S. “inexcusable.” Romney is among other officials who have warned that the U.S. is not yet on track to meet vaccination targets previously set by the Trump administration and health experts.

“I’m telling you that things are changing. 1.5 million doses in the last 72 hours. That’s meaningful change,” Adams told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“There’s what we delivered, and we hoped that would translate into vaccinations, that has not occurred to the way that we would like,” he continued, noting that the nation’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci had warned that “this was always going to be the most difficult vaccine rollout in history.”

The surgeon general went on to urge Americans to remain hopeful, and urged those who gathered with family members over the holiday to get tested, self-isolate and wear a mask in the days ahead.

His remarks come as rollout of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines for COVID-19 began a few weeks ago. The CDC reported that 4.2 million vaccines have been administered in the U.S. as of Saturday.

More than 350,000 Americans have died from the disease since the pandemic began, and experts project that 150,000 more could die in the next month.