White House press secretary Jen Psaki rejected the claim that the Biden government is following “99%” of former President Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” plan for the coronavirus vaccine and denied that the former government deserves credit.
Psaki was asked in his daily White House briefing with reporters on Thursday about the Biden administration saying he “inherited a mess” from the former president and whether Trump should be given credit for “laying the groundwork” for the rapid creation and distribution of several vaccines.
“Which ones are we following?” Psaki replied.
The reporter referred to a Twitter post Trump’s COVID-19 test czar, Dr. Brett Giroir, the former assistant secretary of health and human services, who argued that Biden was copying “99 percent of the Trump plan” and that the previous administration justified the recognition.
“I don’t think anyone deserves credit, since half a million people in the country died from this pandemic,” replied Psaki, referring to the number of deaths in the United States from the coronavirus.
“So our focus, and the focus of the president when he took office just over a month ago, was to make sure we had enough vaccines. We are going to have them now. We had enough vaccinators and vaccination sites to control the pandemic, ”she continued.
Giroir, a retired four-star Navy admiral, posted in February that he was getting “tired of the continuing lies that @potus inherited a mess # COVID19Vacina, when in fact 99% of current vaccine manufacturing and distribution is EXACTLY as planned and explicitly described by the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed. ”
Psaki said the data confirm the government’s claim that Trump’s coronavirus team failed to leave a comprehensive plan for the production and distribution of the vaccine.
“We are open to the challenge that we continue to face, which is why he has been focusing every day on doing everything possible to keep the pandemic in check,” said Psaki.