Biden predicts anyone in the US who wants a coronavirus vaccine will be able to get one by 'this spring'

• President Joe Biden says coronavirus vaccines will be widely available in the US by the spring.
• "I think it'll be this spring," Biden said Monday. "I think we'll be able to do that this spring."
• This was the first time Biden offered such a time window for the vaccine rollout.

President Joe Biden has made his first prediction for when coronavirus vaccines will be available to the bulk of the American public - not just older people and frontline workers.

"I think it'll be this spring," Biden said during a news conference Monday. "I think we'll be able to do that this spring.

"But it's going to be a logistical challenge that exceeds anything we've ever tried in this country."

—ABC News (@ABC) January 25, 2021

Previously, Biden and his press officials had said it was too early to tell when vaccines might be widely available, given the lack of coordination with the Trump administration during the transition.

Beyond cautioning Americans about the logistical challenges, Biden said three factors would determine the efficacy of the rollout.

First, enough vaccine doses need to keep coming in, which he said shouldn't be an issue based on talks he said he'd had recently with other companies working toward authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Second, the US will need to produce enough of what Biden called "paraphernalia" to ensure there are not shortages of syringes or other materials necessary for vaccination.

Finally, Biden said the biggest hurdle facing his administration came down to the workforce responsible for administering the vaccine, with the administration's goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office.

"I think with the grace of God, and the good will of the neighbor, and the creek not rising - as the old saying goes - I think we'll be able to get to 1.5 million a day rather than 1 million a day," Biden said. "But we have to meet that goal of a million a day."

With the spring as his target for more general vaccine access, Biden said once children were able to be vaccinated, the US could be approaching herd immunity by the summer.

"I think by summer," he said, "we will be well on our way to heading toward herd immunity."