By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

President Biden vowed to have 70 percent of Americans inoculated against the killer virus by the Fourth of July.

Well … he’s gonna fall a bit short. Not by much, but we won’t hit the magic mark.

The New York Times reports that it appears that 67.6 percent will be totally vaccinated by that date, which has forced the White House to recalibrate its celebration of the progress they have made in getting us past the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new mantra is 300 million vaccinations in the first 150 days of the Biden administration.

You know what? It’s still — shall we say — a big f****** deal!

The Biden medical team has faced some push back from Americans on the vaccines. Some folks are reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns about side effects. Or they have perhaps deluded themselves into thinking their immune anyway. Or — and this is the tough part — they adhere to a political notion that the pandemic is overrated in the first place.

The Times reports: Experts say that from a disease control perspective, the difference between 67 percent and 70 percent is insignificant. But from a political perspective, it would be the first time Mr. Biden has set a pandemic-related goal that he has not met. Mr. Biden has continually set relatively modest targets for himself and exceeded them, including his pledge to get 100 million shots in the arms of Americans by his first 100 days in office.

Biden Likely to Fall Just Shy of His July 4 Vaccination Goal (msn.com)

Whatever the case, President Biden’s lofty goal is just a tad out of reach. No sweat. We’re still a long way closer to eradicating the pandemic than we were a year ago.

I’ll accept that.