Joe Biden Covid’s team mocks Trump’s plan while borrowing his manual

Photographer: Mario Tama / Getty Images

President Joe Biden and his top advisers ridiculed the Trump administration’s manual for distributing coronavirus vaccines, but so far have made only modest changes to the plan that is reaching the goal of more than one million doses a day.

Biden said the vaccine distribution was “worse than we expected”. White House chief of staff Ron Klain said a Trump administration plan “didn’t really exist”. Adviser Cedric Richmond said they “did not leave a plan”. Xavier Becerra, Biden’s choice for health secretary, said it was like taking control of a plane in a freefall.

But while Biden’s approach to the virus – frank warnings about the pandemic, masks about federal ownership – is a reversal of Trump’s policies, his government’s vaccine distribution so far seems a little different from that of his predecessor. Before Biden took office, vaccines were already being distributed at a pace to meet his goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days as president.

The Biden government has said it will order new doses, but it will do so by exercising options in contracts negotiated by the previous government, which it considered premature to do so. They say they will use the Defense Production Act, which Trump has used repeatedly. Instead of a total overhaul, they made course corrections and modest changes. Data released Friday by Johnson & Johnson will hopefully hope that a third vaccine could hit the U.S. market soon.

The J&J single dose vaccine provides strong protection against Covid

Still, Biden’s ability to drastically change direction is inherently limited. The magnitude of the distribution efforts would make all major changes expensive and run the risk of setbacks, even if temporarily. Some aspects of the program don’t offer much room for maneuver to start, while the more complicated parts are yet to come – and entirely on Biden’s shoulders.

Any efforts by Biden to shape the program were also hampered by Trump, who delayed the transition while contesting the election results and refused to budge. Trump’s team said more than 300 transition briefings were held with health officials, although Biden officials said the exchange of information was limited until just a few days before the inauguration.

Party Rhetoric

Some officials who led Trump’s efforts have opposed what they see as a partisan criticism of Biden’s team, warning that it is undermining morale among career officials working on the vaccine’s launch.

“The transition is going worse than my team and I expected,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific advisor to Operation Warp Speed, the joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to develop and distribute vaccines in time. record. Biden’s team abandoned the name, hoping to increase confidence in the shots, and expelled Slaoui.

“The team does not understand why the Operation is being criticized in this way. It is so unfair and unjustified, ”said Slaoui. “If it weren’t for this Operation, we might not have as many vaccines as we will now.”

Among those who stepped on the curb claiming that Biden received nothing was Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist who was dismissed by Trump and now serves as Biden’s adviser.

“We are certainly not starting from scratch,” said Fauci last week. “It’s taking what’s going on, but amplifying it in style.” Biden also credited scientists and the Trump administration for getting the vaccine program off the ground. “And that credit is absolutely due,” he said.

Biden’s approach

There are differences. Biden is endorsing federally run community vaccination centers and mobile clinics, and is aiming provide states with a three-week supply forecast. They acted to increase the number of people available to administer it, although Trump officials say the shortage is vaccines, not vaccinators. Biden vowed to let science lead and made the briefings public, in stark contrast to Trump, who turned away health advisers in favor of those who reinforced his own vision.

Biden also pressed for equity – saying that black communities were disproportionately affected by the virus and cannot be left out in the response. Vaccination may become more complicated as the months go on, the supply increases and the groups with easier access – including health professionals and long-term residents – are fully vaccinated.

But the bulk of the distribution effort remains unchanged, undermining claims by some Biden consultants that they have not inherited any plans. Many of the most stubborn bottlenecks do not stem from the decisions of the federal government: companies simply cannot produce vaccines quickly enough and supplies are in short supply; even if the distribution occurs without problems, the administration of doses is guaranteed at the local level.

“What we’re seeing here is them marching through the Operation Warp Speed ​​manual,” added Michael Pratt, former Trump Health and Human Services officer. “Something cannot be a gloomy failure at the same time and it has already fulfilled the ‘ambitious goal’ you have set.”

Almost all industrialized nations have been affected by vaccine delays. The European Union has moved to restrict vaccine exports. The United States administered 8.3 doses per 100 people, behind the United Kingdom and Israel, but surpassing Germany, Canada, France and the EU in general, according to Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.

The war of words has increased since the opening day. Slaoui said he was informed by the Biden government that he would remain a consultant, only to later read in reports that he had been asked to resign. He said he asked Zients about the reports and was told he should resign.

“I agreed to do this at their request,” said Slaoui in an interview. “There are two ways to look good: either you look good because you do great things, or you look good because you make others look bad. Me hope that the new administration does not join this game. “

Biden retained other key Trump officials, including General Gustave Perna, who co-led Operation Warp Speed ​​alongside Slaoui, with a focus on distribution.

100 day promise

Biden questioned whether 100 million doses in 100 days – a goal he set before vaccination started – is a very modest goal. The United States reported more than one million daily doses for the first time on January 13, and the continuous daily average reached one million on January 23, Biden’s third full day in office. Two days later, Biden revised his goal, saying he thought 1.5 million daily doses were achievable in the first 100 days. The USA has so far only reached that mark once: opening day.

“It is really incorrect to say that there was no plan – because we are already reaching 1.3 million doses of weapons a day, which exceeds the first goal that President Biden had,” said Brett Giroir, who led the previous government’s efforts to speed up testing.