Joe Biden Covid’s team is dedicating its Trump plan while borrowing its textbook

Photographer: Mario Tama / Getty Images

President Joe Biden and his top advisers have ridiculed the Trump administration’s playing card for distributing coronavirus vaccines, but so far have made only modest changes to the plan, which is reaching a target of more than a million photos a day.

Biden said the vaccine was in “worse shape than I expected.” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said the Trump administration’s plan “didn’t really exist.” Councilor Cedric Richmond said they “did not leave a plan”. Xavier Becerra, Biden’s election as health secretary, said it was like taking a plane in your nose.

But while Biden’s approach to the virus – sincere warnings about the pandemic, masking federal property warrants – is a reversal of Trump’s policies, his administration’s distribution of vaccines so far looks slightly different from that of his predecessor. Before Biden was sworn in, vaccines were already being delivered at a rate to reach the 100 million dose target in the first 100 days of the presidency.

The Biden administration has said it will order new doses, but will do so by exercising options in contracts negotiated by the previous administration, which considered it premature to do so. They say they will use the Defense Production Act, which Trump has used repeatedly. Rather than a total overhaul, they made course corrections and modest changes otherwise. Data published on Friday by Johnson & Johnson will raise hopes that a third vaccine could reach the US market soon.

The J&J single dose vaccine provides a strong shield against Covid

However, Biden’s ability to suddenly change direction is inherently limited. The sheer scale of distribution efforts would make any major change costly and risk withdrawing, albeit temporarily. Some aspects of the program do not provide much room to begin, while the most difficult parts have to come – and entirely on Biden’s shoulders.

All of Biden’s efforts to form the program were also undermined by Trump, who delayed the transition, challenging the election results and refusing to admit it. Trump’s team said more than 300 transition sessions were held with health officials, although Biden officials said the exchange of information was limited to just a few days before the inauguration.

Partisan rhetoric

Some officials who led Trump’s efforts have opposed what they consider to be partisans of the snatch from Biden’s team, warning that it is damaging the morale of career staff working to launch the vaccine.

“The transition is going less well than I and my team hoped,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser on Operation Warp Speed, a joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense to develop and distribute vaccines in record time. Biden’s team gave up the name, hoping to boost confidence in the shots, and forced Slaoui.

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

Among those who put the brakes on claims that Biden was not given anything is Anthony Fauci, the nations’ greatest expert on infectious diseases, who was removed by Trump and now serves as Biden’s adviser.

“We certainly don’t start from scratch,” Fauci said last week. “It takes what happened, but it amplifies it to a great extent.” Biden also gave credit to the scientists and the Trump administration for launching the vaccination program. “And this credit is absolutely due,” he said.

Biden’s approach

There are differences. Biden supports federally administered community immunization centers and mobile clinics, and it is aiming at provide states a three-week supply preview. They have moved to increase the number of people available for its administration, although Trump officials said the shortage is in vaccines, not vaccines. Biden pledged to let science lead the way and made the information public, in stark contrast to Trump, who excluded health advisers in favor of those who strengthened their views.

Biden also insisted on addressing fairness – saying that communities of color were disproportionately injured by the virus and could not be left out of the answer. Vaccinations could become more complicated as the months go by, supply increases, and easier-to-reach groups – including health workers and long-term care residents – are fully vaccinated.

But most of the distribution effort remains unchanged, undermining the claims of some Biden councilors that they have not inherited any plans. Many of the most stubborn blockages do not come from federal government decisions: companies simply cannot produce vaccines fast enough, and supplies are scarce; even if the distribution goes smoothly, dose administration is supported locally.

“What we see here is that they are marking through Operation Warp Speed’s manual,” added Michael Pratt, a former Trump health and human services official. “Something cannot be a negative failure at the same time and you have already reached the ‘ambitious goal’ you have set.”

Almost every industrialized nation has been affected by vaccine delays. The European Union has moved to restricts vaccine exports. The United States administered 8.3 doses per 100 people, targeting the United Kingdom and Israel, but surpassed Germany, Canada, France and the EU in general, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

The war of words has grown since the day of the inauguration. Slaoui said the Biden administration had told him he would remain a consultant, later reading in the news that he had been asked to resign. He said he asked Zients about reports and told him he should resign.

“I agreed to do this at their request,” Slaoui said 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. I the hope that the new administration does not enter into that game. ”

Biden retained Trump’s other key personnel, including General Gustave Perna, who is co-leader of Operation Warp Speed ​​with Slaoui, focusing on distribution.

Pledge of 100 days

Biden looked at whether 100 million doses in 100 days – a target he set before vaccinations began – was too modest a goal. The United States reported more than one million daily doses for the first time on January 13, and the rolling daily average exceeded one million on January 23, Biden’s third full day. Two days later, Biden revised his goal, saying he believes 1.5 million daily doses are achievable in the first 100 days. The United States reached that date only once: the day of the inauguration.

“It’s really incorrect to say that there was no plan – because we are already achieving 1.3 million gun doses a day, which is beyond the first goal that President Biden had,” said Brett Giroir, who led previous administration’s efforts to increase testing.