What is the first thing Joe Biden should do as president? He has many competing priorities. He must deal with the pandemic, restart the economy, reestablish U.S. credibility on the world stage and compete effectively with China.

It turns out there is one thing he can do that will address all these problems at once: vaccinate all Americans as quickly as possible. Biden’s current goal of vaccinating 1 million people a day is far too modest. He should double that, doing whatever it takes to achieve herd immunity for the United States by late April or early May. This would instantly boost the United States’ standing and give the president leverage with everyone from the Republicans to the Europeans and the Chinese.

Right now, the rollout of the vaccine is flailing. Alex Azar, the Trump administration’s secretary of health and human services, predicted in early December that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of 2020. In fact, that number barely reached 3 million.

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