Fact check: Biden falsely claims that journalists said his vaccination target ‘was not possible’

Fact check: Biden falsely claims that journalists said his vaccination target ‘was not possible’

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The question of whether the goal is too modest arose in part because the United States is approaching the level of 1 million doses administered each day before Biden even implements his plans. The United States had an average of 914,000 doses administered daily in the past week, according to data published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Biden defended the goal of 100 million. He told the reporter, “When I announced it, you all said it wasn’t possible. Come on, give me a break, man. It’s a good start – 100 million.”

Gupta said on CNN on the day of Biden’s announcement in December that the 100 million target was “very doable”, given what we heard from vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer. The next morning, CNN medical analyst Dr. Jorge Rodriguez said on the air that “it is a realistic goal”, as Biden has a plan.
A brief CNN review article said that reaching the target would be a “giant undertaking” and that Biden often faced “terribly scary” first 100 days in office. But this article also did not say that reaching the goal was impossible or even improbable.

There may well be someone in some media who said that administering 100 million doses in 100 days was not possible. But Biden told reporters at the State Dining Room that “you all said” it was impossible, and that is clearly not true.

The White House declined to comment on the record. An aide to Biden said, on condition of anonymity, that the president was referring to previous media coverage that was skeptical about the goal, not saying that the goal had been described by the media as “literally impossible”.

Media skepticism

Biden could have said precisely that part of the initial coverage was skeptical.

Citing production challenges faced by vaccine manufacturers, science journalist Laurie Garrett said on MSNBC on the day of the announcement that it was not “clear” whether Biden could achieve the goal. A New York Times article that day described the goal as “ambitious”, said that its compliance “would not require hiccups in the manufacture or distribution of the vaccine and the willingness of Americans to be vaccinated”, and added: “The Biden vaccine schedule it is achievable, experts say, but it can be optimistic. ”

The Times article went on to quote former Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, a medical analyst at CNN, who said: “Distribution must be continuous across the U.S., and that means that all state and national health departments coordinate. And there’s the problem of public trust. So I certainly hope it will happen, but (it’s) very optimistic. ”

Still, neither the article nor Garrett declared the goal impossible. And on the same day, The Atlantic staff writer Conor Friedersdorf tweeted that the goal was not ambitious enough.
The most recent coverage also brought a mix of views. CNN reported last week that state officials were “skeptical” about Biden reaching the goal. But Gupta said on Thursday, after Biden spoke, that he still believes the goal is realistic – and added that some might argue that the 100 million figure is “below expectations, underestimating a fair amount, in terms of what it’s possible”.

Given Biden’s plans to expand the availability of the vaccine, Gupta said, “I think you can get some significant numbers higher than what they are suggesting, more than 100 million doses in 100 days.”

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