Six more states are opening up COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 or over today: Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. At least three other states will do the same this week. Over 36% of U.S. adults have now received at least one dose of a vaccine. Officials are rushing to get shots in as many arms as possible as over two dozen states report an increase of at least 10% in new cases compared to the previous week. New York and New Jersey, once the epicenter of the virus, are again leading in new infections.

Dr. Deborah Birx, former President Trump’s coronavirus coordinator, told CNN hundreds of thousands of U.S. COVID deaths may have been preventable.

Dr. Deborah Birx: “There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge. All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”

Nearly 550,000 deaths have been reported in the U.S., by far the highest death toll in the world.