President Joe Biden touted his coronavirus vaccination plan, which aims to inoculate 100 million Americans within the first 100 days of his administration, as a “wartime undertaking.”
But, in fact, Biden’s plan “underwhelms,” according to Bloomberg News. That’s because America was averaging nearly 1 million vaccinations per day under now-former President Donald Trump.
What are the details?
One of Biden’s central campaign messages was to attack Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden promised his administration would enact more effective policies to combat the virus, and its devastating impact on the economy and American life.
Part of Biden’s plan, then, is mobilization of vaccine distribution to achieve an innoculation rate of 1 million Americans per day, thereby reaching 100 million vaccinations within the first 100 days of his presidency.
But Trump already accomplished that. In fact, not only did vaccinations average nearly 1 million per day under Trump, but many days significantly topped that average.
From the New York Post:
Biden’s first full day in office on Thursday saw 1.3 million Americans inoculated against the deadly coronavirus, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. But the same figures show that 1.3 million shots were administered on Jan. 11 and that 1.1 million were given both Jan. 14 and 16. Vaccinations also hit a record-high, 1.6 million on Wednesday, when Biden was sworn into office, according to the data.
Biden was actually confronted about this fact on Thursday. In response, the new president lashed out at the reporter who pointed out that Trump had already essentially accomplished his vaccination goal.
“Mr. president, you set the goal at 100 million vaccines at a hundred days, is that high enough?” Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked. “Shouldn’t you set the bar higher, that’s basically where we are now.”
Biden responded, “When I announced it, you all said it was not possible. C’mon, give me a break man!”
Anything else?
The Biden administration already has been spinning its COVID-19 response with help from the mainstream media.
On Thursday, CNN reported, citing Biden administration officials, that Trump’s administration did not have a usable COVID vaccination plan in place, forcing the Biden administration to build one from scratch.
“There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch,” CNN reported the anonymous official as saying.
The claim was quickly shot down by others in the media and eventually Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Biden.
Sam Stein of Politico and MSNBC said, “Biden folks are spinning here or trying to lower the bar strategically. There was, indeed, a plan from Trump. I listened in on govs calls on vaccine distribution. The plan had obvious shortcomings. but to say there’s nothing to rework is not true.”
Meanwhile, Fauci explained, “We’re certainly not starting from scratch, because there is activity going on in the distribution. … I mean we’re coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas with … the previous administration. You can’t say it was absolutely not usable at all.”
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) pointed out, “Biden wants you to believe ‘100 million vaccines in 100 days’ is his plan. But it’s not. It was Trump’s. America is already on track for 100 million in 100 days. Biden could do 200 million in 100 days. Republicans would support it. Thanks to Trump, he’s already halfway there.”
