Fact that Biden’s virus claims were checked during Michigan’s visit to the Pfizer factory

President Biden visited Pfizer’s Portage, Michigan plant on Friday, where he commented on his government’s efforts to ramp up coronavirus vaccinations in the US.

On his first official visit to Michigan since he was elected president, Biden toured the Pfizer facility and got a firsthand look at how COVID-19 vaccines are stored and shipped before discussing new distribution strategies.

While Biden’s comments were largely ambitious or congratulatory on Friday, there were a few things that needed to be checked.

Grant Herms from Local 4 went through some of Biden’s claims through our Trust Index – see what we found below.

First, let’s start with a claim Biden has made about the government’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production in the U.S.

Biden Statement: “When we found that vaccine manufacturers were not being prioritized in researching and securing the supplies they needed, we solved that problem and got them what they needed.”

We call this one: be careful.

Defense production law is generally used to induce companies to change production for national interests. While the Biden administration is using the DPA in a more targeted way than the Trump administration, the Trump White House initially used it to encourage vaccine development at a time when the vaccine was far from being production-ready, turning instead they are turning to other ways to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to work on the vaccine.

It’s fair that Biden claims his DPAs have sped up the supply chain, but his statement ignores some of the groundwork laid by the previous president.

Next, we examine a claim made by Biden about the number of vaccinations administered each day in the US

Biden statement: “We have an average of 1.7 million a day. Soon we will be at 50 million, and I am confident we will exceed that number. “

We also call this one: be careful.

The information Biden presents in this statement requires context.

Biden was referring to his commitment to have 100 million shots delivered to American arms during his first 100 days in office. The country passed the 50 million shots mark by Valentine’s Day, and 50 million fully vaccinated Americans are expected by the end of March – but those shots are being administered overtime, and do not take place in one day, as the president’s statement seems to suggest.

Next, we look at a claim President Biden made about the number of Americans who went hungry during the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden statement: “24 million adults, 11 million children don’t have enough to eat. And unless you think I’m exaggerating, think about those scenes you saw on television with cars in line that seemed like miles. “

We call this: true.

However, it is important to note that the specific numbers are difficult to follow and the president may be underlining the problem.

It appears that President Biden is using USDA numbers taken during the pandemic but before the pandemic hit completely. According to the nonprofit Feeding America, Biden’s numbers were accurate early on in the pandemic, but they are expected to get much worse: nearly 50 million hungry people, including 17 million children, for all of 2020.

When President Biden talked about the introduction of vaccines, he called the Michigan supermarket chain “Meijers.” We’ve thought about this long and hard and decided … we’ll just stay out of it.

On his first visit to Michigan since his election as president, Joe Biden visited Pfizer’s production site in Kalamazoo County Friday and thanked all employees during his live comments for their efforts to help vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus.

After touring Pfizer’s largest manufacturing site, addressing the nation, President Biden thanked Pfizer employees for their role in producing hundreds of millions of doses of the much-needed coronavirus vaccine. Biden said the advancement of COVID-19 vaccines was a “miracle of science,” especially after health experts initially believed it could take six to eight years to develop a vaccine.

After criticizing the previous government’s lack of a national vaccine strategy, Biden outlined his government’s initiative to ramp up the production and distribution of coronavirus vaccines, calling it “this country’s most difficult operational challenge.”

President Biden says the average daily number of people vaccinated in the US has nearly doubled from the week before he took office to an average of about 1.7 million people getting vaccines every day. With this new average, Biden claims the country is not only on track to surpass its pledge of 100 million shots in its first 100 days in office, but he expects to surpass that number. Critics have previously argued that 100 million doses was an insufficient target in the beginning and hoped that the rate of distribution would be increased where possible.

Read more about Biden’s visit and comments here.

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