Biden is ‘inheriting a huge mess’ on COVID vaccine rollout, his chief of staff says
.jpg "FILE - In this Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014 file photo, Ron Klain listens as President Barack Obama speaks to the media about the government’s Ebola response in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Klain, President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff said Sunday the new administration is “inheriting a huge mess” when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine distribution. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)")
President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain, on Sunday described the new administration’s plans to fix what he called a “huge mess” of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
The coronavirus vaccine rollout in the United States has been much slower than officials hoped. As of Friday, more than 31.1 million doses had been distributed and more than 12.2 million people had received their first shot of the two required for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s significantly short of federal officials’ goal to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million by the end of January.
Plans to release stockpiled doses initially set to be administered as second doses fell through when Trump administration officials announced last week that those reserves do not exist, officials briefed on the plan told The Washington Post. Now, state health officials who were expecting to receive more doses to ramp up their vaccinations will see their supplies remain scarce.
“We’re inheriting a huge mess here, Jake,” Klain told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday. “But we have a plan to fix it, and the president-elect laid out the plan on Friday — five concrete steps to move us forward, to make pace with the vaccination. I want to give the vaccine makers credit, they are producing vaccine, we think there are things we can do to speed up the delivery of that vaccine and to make that vaccine supply go further.”
Biden outlined the five-point plan to vaccinate more people during a speech in Wilmington, Delaware.
It includes immediately working with states to open up vaccinations to more “priority groups,” increasing the number of vaccination sites and the pool of vaccinators, fully activating pharmacies across the country, ramping up vaccine supply using the “full strength of the federal government” and the Defense Production Act and being clear with state and local officials about how much supply they’ll be getting and when they’ll get it.
Incoming officials have previously said Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act when he takes office. The act allows the president to “expedite and expand” supplies and services needed for national defense, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
It can include providing incentives or assistance to industries to increase production and supplies.
On Thursday, Biden called vaccine rollout so far a “dismal failure.”
“This will be one of the most challenging operational efforts we have ever undertaken as a nation,” Biden said of his administration’s plan to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. “We’ll have to move Heaven and Earth to get more people vaccinated.”
Klain told CNN on Sunday that he still believes that goal is possible.
“We believe there will be adequate supply to give people their second shots, and more importantly, we believe there will be continued supply and distribution of that supply to hit that target of 100 million shots in 100 days,” he said, according to CNN.
This story was originally published January 17, 2021 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Biden is ‘inheriting a huge mess’ on COVID vaccine rollout, his chief of staff says."
