Hey Donald Trump, no thanks!
Pathetically, Republicans and their media shills at Fox News are spewing a new party line, demanding that President Biden and America “Thank Trump” for his alleged role in the Biden Administration’s impressive rollout of COVID vaccines at a record pace. They claim Trump’s Operation Warp Speed swiftly developed the COVID vaccine and had a sound plan to distribute it.
As others pointed out, the first vaccine was developed by Pfizer/BioNTech without any federal assistance. To those who say, but the Trump Administration prompted them to develop it by signing a contract to buy 100 million doses of their vaccine in July, 2020, note that at the time, Trump declined to contract for additional doses. Pfizer/BioNTech then sold the EU 200 million doses. Five months later, the Trump Administration finally contracted for 200 million more doses (half from Pfizer/BioNTech and half from Moderna).
Upon taking office, President Biden immediately contracted for an additional 200 million doses, combined, from the two companies. In late February, Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine was also approved. Biden invoked the Defense Production Act to require J&J to cooperate with Merck to ensure it could meet its existing contract to deliver 100 million doses by the end of May, and he contracted for an additional 100 million doses.
Turning to the distribution of the vaccine, it is undisputed that President Biden has greatly accelerated the pace of vaccinations in this country. As evidence, remember the skepticism that greeted his announced goal to put vaccine shots in 100 million arms in the first 100 days of his Administration. Unrealistic, too ambitious, critics said. As he announced last night, he’s easily going to beat that “unrealistic” goal.
Given that President Biden has greatly enhanced the purchase, distribution, and administration of COVID vaccines throughout the country, Trumpsters fall back on the notion that he’s “just carrying out Trump’s plan.”
Think about that. Republicans, in essence, are saying that Trump had developed an effective plan to distribute life-saving COVID vaccines to the American people – but couldn’t be bothered to implement it fully in the last two months of his Administration. Why? Because he was obsessively focused on perpetuating the “Big Lie” that the election was stolen from him, and he needed to do everything in his power to thwart the will of the people and destroy our democracy Do Republicans really think this is a winning position to take?
