By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – After touring the mass vaccination site in Bloomington earlier this week, Central Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis thinks President Joe Biden’s goal of administering 200 million does of the COVID-19 vaccine is obtainable in his first 100-days in office.

The Taylorville Republican joined McLean County health officials on a tour of the Grossinger Motors Arena earlier this week, where the site averages around 500 vaccines a day.

“I do believe that the President, I do believe the President when he said that ‘by May 1, we should have a dose of vaccine for every single American. The supply should be there.’ The key is, is how do we continue to highlight what’s going right about getting these vaccines into the arms of individuals who are walking through these doors, and that’s the key.”

The Biden administration had met the President’s original goal of 100 million earlier in March. Still, the President later doubled down on his initial goal during his first press conference as President.

Davis, who is vaccinated, said that the conversation needs to switch to reopening the economy as more Americans get vaccinated.

“You know, it was kind of surreal; it was about a year ago we were at the Interstate Center, and now we are seeing testing and the need for testing continue to go down, and that’s good. Because we should be talking about the vaccines right now, symptomatic people should be tested.

“But, when you look at the availability of vaccines increasing, I think the focus should be on getting people vaccinated, protected from being hospitalized, and then getting our economy and facilities like this reopened to what they were designed for. Not for a vaccine clinic, but for our future.”

As of Thursday, 5.9 million Illinoisans received their first dose of the vaccine, with 2.2 million fully vaccinated.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].