Joe Biden Confirms Plan to Use NFL Stadiums as Vaccination Sites During Super Bowl Interview

President Joe Biden said the government will take up the NFL's offer to use all 32 stadiums as [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

President Joe Biden said the government will take up the NFL's offer to use all 32 stadiums as coronavirus vaccination sites during his interview with CBS News before Super Bowl LV. On Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sent Biden a letter offering to coordinate with officials to turn the stadiums into venus where the public can get their vaccinations. In the interview Sunday, Biden said his administration is "ramping up" efforts to distribute the vaccines after discovering the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic was "even more dire than we thought."

Biden told CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell his administration "absolutely" will work with the NFL to have vaccinations at the stadiums. "Let me put it this way — I tell my team they're available and I believe we'll use them," Biden said. "Look, it was one thing if we had enough vaccine, which we didn't. So we're pushing as hard as we can to get more vaccine manufactured."

The NFL invited 7,500 vaccinated health care workers from across the country to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the home of Super Bowl LV. In his letter Friday, Goodell said the league and every team is "committed to doing our part to ensure that vaccines are as widely accessible in our communities as possible," so they offered the stadiums as mass vaccination sites. Seven stadiums are already being used for this purpose. "We can expand our efforts to stadiums across the nation more effectively because many of our clubs have offered their facilities previously as COVID testing centers as well as election sites over the past several months," Goodell wrote.

Elsewhere in his interview, Biden said his team discovered that there were not as many of the vaccines available as they thought coming in after the Trump administration. "So that's why we've ramped up every way we can." CBS News estimates that at the current rate of 1.3 million vaccinations a day, 75% of Americans will not be vaccinated until the end of the year. "We can't wait that long," Biden said.

O'Donnell asked Biden if he could get Pfizer or Moderna to produce more vaccines as president. "Yes. I think, because we've already done it," the former vice president said. "But the idea that this can be done and we can get to herd immunity much before the end of next — this summer, is very difficult."

As for opening schools, Biden said it was time to do so, but safely. He said there must be fewer people in classrooms and ventilation systems will have to be updated. "Our CDC commissioner is going to be coming out with science-based judgment, within I think as early as Wednesday as to lay out what the minimum requirements are," he said. Biden already signed an executive order prioritizing school re-opening within his first 100 days in office. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.

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