U.S. President Joe Biden answers questions from the media in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., September 24, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Friday blamed unvaccinated Americans for slowing down the U.S. economic recovery, accusing some elected officials of actively trying to undermine the administration’s efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden’s comments came hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved distributing Pfizer and BioNTech’s booster shots to roughly 60 million Americans.
“The vast majority of Americans are doing the right thing,” Biden said in addressing the nation, noting that three-fourths of those eligible have have gotten at least one shot. He criticized the more than 70 million people who haven’t yet started the vaccination process. “And to make matters worse, there are elected officials actively working to undermine with false information the fight against Covid-19. This is totally unacceptable.”
Economists have brought down expectations for the back half of the year following a string of disappointing economic reports. The U.S. economy added just 235,000 jobs in August, well short of expectations for a 720,000 gain from economists polled by Dow Jones. This week, the Federal Reserve forecast 2021 GDP to rise at a 5.9% annual pace, down from its previous forecast of 7% growth.
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