TEXAS — President Joe Biden's ambitious July 4 vaccination goal is looking less likely. He wants to get 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by then.

That would mean about 15.5 million unvaccinated adults need to receive at least one dose in the next four weeks. But the pace of new vaccinations has dropped below 400,000 per day.

Texas vaccination rates peaked in April. But it's been consistently dropping since then and the state is behind the national average with about 45% fully vaccinated and 54% with one dose.

“With the rate of vaccines daily dropping drastically, it’s not looking very likely that we’ll be able to meet that 7% vaccinated, or at least partially vaccinated, by July 4,” said Angela Clendenin, a professor in epidemiology & biostatistics at Texas A&M University’s School of Public Health. “But there’s no reason to give up. If we don’t hit the mark, we still need to continue to march forward to try and continue to get as many people vaccinated as we can, especially before school starts back in the fall.”

Clendenin says Texas’ lagging vaccination rates are due to two factors.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there about the vaccines,” she said. “It’s also a question of access. Texas has a lot of rural areas and some counties don’t even have a local health department. So, in trying to improve access to those most vulnerable populations and those that don’t have access to health care is the biggest challenge. But it’s also the most important thing we can be doing to improve our vaccine rate.”  

Clendenin cautioned about fully getting back to normal since there are a large number of people unvaccinated. She said it’s still important to engage in wearing masks and social distancing.

“So, I’m not quite ready to say, even though we’re opening up we can go back to pre-pandemic normal. We still need to be cautious. We still need to be responsible, and that’s at the individual level,” Clendenin said.

Click the video link above to watch our full interview with Clendenin, including her take on the potential for a rise in cases following Memorial Day and July 4 gatherings.