NEW:
PORTAGE, Mich. (AP) — President Joe Biden has toured a state-of-the art coronavirus vaccine plant. He was intent on showcasing progress against the virus even as extreme winter weather across the U.S. handed his vaccination campaign its first major setback, delaying shipment of about 6 million doses and causing temporary closures of inoculation sites in many communities. While acknowledging the weather is "slowing up the distribution right now," Biden said at the Pfizer plant in Michigan that he believes "we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year." Disruptions caused by frigid temperatures, snow and ice have left the White House and states scrambling to make up lost ground as three days' worth of vaccine shipments were temporarily delayed.
ORIGINAL POST:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Extreme winter weather is dealing the first major setback to the Biden administration’s planned swift rollout of coronavirus vaccines just as the national vaccination campaign was hitting its stride. The disruptions caused by frigid temperatures, snow and ice left the White House scrambling to work with states to make up “lost ground.” The setback came as President Joe Biden was set to visit a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant near Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Friday. The president’s trip itself had been pushed back a day due to wintry weather in the nation’s capital. The president was set to meet with workers at the plant who are producing one of the two federally-approved COVID-19 shots.