President Biden says he wants 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine doled out in 100 days, which was about where the Trump administration had been pacing. But health experts say that that speed is not going to get the job done.
“I love that he set a goal, but a million doses a day?” said Dr. Paul A. Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of a federal vaccine advisory board, told the New York Times of Biden's plan. “I think we can do better. We are going to have to if we really want to get on top of this virus by, say, summer.”
The journalists who haven't been asking softball questions and are actually pressing the White House on the distribution plan are getting their heads bitten off. In a continuation of his dismissive treatment of the press during his campaign, President Biden snapped when an AP reporter simply asked if his administration planned to bump up their COVID-19 vaccination plan.
"Shouldn't you set the bar higher?" Jeff Zeleny asked. "Isn't that basically where the U.S. is right now?"
"When I announced it you all said it's not possible," Biden said to Zeleny, laughing. "Come on, give me a break, man."
Biden snaps at AP's Zeke Miller when he asks about the number of vaccine doses he wants to dole out in his first 100 days.
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 21, 2021
"When I announced it you all said it's not possible. Come on, give me a break, man." pic.twitter.com/YnP1gyjnVX
?? WATCH ? A reporter pointed out to President Biden that his vaccine pace is the same as President Trump's vaccine pace.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) January 21, 2021
Biden’s response?
He said "come on give me a break man" and got up and left.
Where’s the media outrage? They wouldn't have let Trump off that easy. pic.twitter.com/gg0ybrBeuD
Biden will reportedly seek congressional funding for $20 billion to expand vaccination centers.
Biden's White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced this week that the new administration is phasing out Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership that helped steer the development of the two FDA approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Psaki and other White House officials may try to blame the current distribution issue all on their predecessors, but don't let them rewrite history on how we got the record fast vaccines in the first place.