Biden reportedly inherited no vaccine plan from Trump: ‘Complete incompetence’
America's new president, Joe Biden, has confirmed he'll be starting from scratch on a plan for COVID-19 shots.
As the nation continues to be besieged by the raging coronavirus pandemic that continues to claim thousands of lives daily, the new presidential leadership is confirming it will be starting from scratch with a vaccine strategy.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the top priority for the newly-inaugurated Joe Biden–Kamala Harris administration, sworn in just yesterday.
A source told CNN Thursday morning — President Biden’s first day in office — that “there is nothing for us to rework,” regarding the vaccine distribution plan. “We are going to have to build everything from scratch.”
Another source described the situation as the new administration having to start from “square one” because their predecessors had no plan. “Wow,” the second source says, “just further affirmation of complete incompetence.”
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Former U.S. Secretary of State Alex Azar announced earlier this month that the federal government would begin releasing vaccine doses it had been holding in reserve as the second dose for inoculated Americans. However, according to reports, no such stockpile existed.
The Biden transition team expressed concerns prior to the inauguration due to the lack of information coming out of the White House.
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“We’re not going to hide from the fact that is going to be a tremendous effort that is going to require the hard work of millions of Americans,” said Rep. Bill Foster, an Illinois Democrat on the House coronavirus subcommittee who has participated in briefings with Biden’s transition team, told CNN last week. “It’s not going to be some magical solution.”
Biden’s singular focus today is to roll out a national strategy to fight the ongoing pandemic.
Yesterday, Biden’s White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that the administration remains confident that it will administer 100 shots within the first 100 days of this presidency.
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“For almost a year now, Americans could not look to the federal government for any strategy, let alone a comprehensive approach to respond to COVID,” Zients said. “And we’ve seen the tragic costs of that failure. As President Biden steps into office today … that’ll change tomorrow.”
The first reported U.S. case of COVID-19 was documented on Jan. 19, 2020.
President Biden is expected to sign several executive orders which will speed up vaccine production, enhance the Defense Production Act and get more Americans vaccinated, starting with those 65 years of age, as well as essential workers, including teachers and grocery store employees.
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