Tsar Biden COVID calls Trump vaccine planning ‘much worse than we could have imagined’

President Biden’s coronavirus team blames the Trump administration for what it calls a lack of planning in the government’s response to COVID-19 that is now forcing officials to step up federal action.

“What we inherit is much worse than what we could have imagined”, Jeff ZientsJeff ZientsBiden Seeks To Immediately Turn The Page Of The Trump Biden Era To Order Agencies To Use Defense Production Act In Fighting Coronavirus Three COVID-19 Vaccines Under Late Review For Approval WHO emergency PLUSBiden’s coronavirus response coordinator said on a call with reporters.

Biden is expected to take several executive actions on Thursday, including asking agencies to make more aggressive use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to push companies to increase the manufacturing of supplies for tests, vaccines, and medical equipment. protection for health workers.

Biden officials said they have identified “12 immediate supply shortages” in areas they would work to address.

Former President TrumpDonald Trump Clinton, Bush and Obama reflect on peaceful transition of power on Biden inauguration day Arizona Republican brothers say he is ‘at least partially responsible’ for violence on Capitol Hill Biden cancels Trump’s $ 4 billion PLUS freeze was particularly disengaged from the coronavirus response towards the end of his presidency as he focused instead on trying to overturn the election results. Its administration since the start of the pandemic has shifted many responsibilities to states, including the last step in vaccine distribution: getting vaccinated.

The Biden team’s criticisms of the Trump administration come as they reduce any expectation that the situation will immediately turn around.

A lack of visibility into vaccine allocation efforts during the transition period has forced the new administration to try to quickly understand where the government’s response to the pandemic is, officials said.

“Allocation and sourcing are critical areas that unfortunately we haven’t had much visibility on and we’re focusing on that immediately,” Zients said.

He said Biden’s team did not have an exact supply forecast from the vaccine makers other than knowing there was enough supply for the goal of administering 100 million shots over the course of of the first 100 days.

“We also know we need to increase supply, which is why you hear about all of this focus on DPA and working closely with manufacturers,” Zients said.

The Biden administration plans to use the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set up federally managed vaccination sites, with the target of 100 sites next month.

Officials also plan to improve communication with states that have complained that it is difficult for them to plan their vaccine distribution efforts without clear messages from the federal government on the number of doses of vaccine they are receiving. will be awarded and when.

“We hear time and time again from governors and local leaders that they just don’t know what supply is coming and can’t plan,” Zients said. “We will absolutely over the next few days [work] to understand what’s going on. “