More On:

Coronavirus

FDNY firefighter who responded to Ground Zero dies of COVID-19

Bill would require minimum staffing levels in NY nursing homes, hospitals

US COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations down for two straight weeks

Infectious disease expert warns double-masking ‘can do more harm’

President Biden contends that there is “nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months” — which is the exact opposite of what presidential candidate Joe Biden promised voters during the 2020 campaign. Candidate Biden’s plan said that “the trajectory of COVID-19 in America is headed in the wrong direction,” and only he could fix it.

The Biden “plan” amounted to a slew of nebulous promises that would be implemented to correct the “Trump fiasco,” such as accelerating the development of a vaccine, producing more masks and pressuring governors to sign mask mandates. Biden repeatedly promised to alter the trajectory of COVID-19. In a platitudinous Oct. 23 speech, Biden pledged to “immediately put in place a national strategy that will position our country to finally get ahead of this virus and get back our lives.”

“Immediately” is an adverb meaning at once, instantly. It doesn’t mean waiting around to take credit for when the Trump-era vaccines kick in.

Biden continually underestimated the speed with which medical technology would move. Every time former President Donald Trump promised that a vaccine would be available by the end of the year, “fact-checkers” were deployed to claim this was a lie. By Dec. 23, the United States led the world in vaccinations, with more than a million people vaccinated. 

This, despite the fact that, during the presidential campaign, Democrats such as then-candidate Kamala Harris engaged in a cynical partisan effort to erode trust in government by intimating that the efficacy and safety of vaccines would be compromised under Team Trump.

Now, CNN reports that Team Biden has inherited “no coronavirus vaccine distribution plan to speak of from the Trump administration.” An anonymous source claims that “there is nothing for us to rework. . . . We are going to have to build everything from scratch.” 

Why does CNN allow anonymity in a piece bashing the previous administration? Most likely because the claim is obviously untrue. Even coronavirus czar Dr. Anthony Fauci refuted the notion. Indeed, the very existence of the vaccine refutes the notion as well.

Then again, if there were no vaccine plan — or, as is the case, we need a better one — why wasn’t the Biden administration ready with its own? The president had promised to “seek out governors and mayors and other leaders of both parties, from every state, territory and tribe, and consult with education, technology, business and labor leaders” — basically, everyone but your sister — so he’d be “ready to hit the ground running and fight the virus as our next president.”

The phrase “hit the ground running” means to start a new activity immediately and with a lot of enthusiasm.

At a news conference on Thursday, Biden claimed that the Trump administration’s distribution of coronavirus vaccines had been a “dismal failure” and set a goal to vaccinate 100 million Americans by the end of April, or around 1 million people per day. 

But on the day before Biden made his promise, there had already been 1.6 million doses administered in the United States, according to Bloomberg. One hopes Biden’s plan isn’t to slow down inoculations, and that his “plan” was just a clumsy attempt to convince a compliant press to give him credit for existing accomplishments.

When a reporter gently pushed back and noted how unambitious the administration’s goals were, Biden shot back: “When I announced it you all said it wasn’t possible. Come on, give me a break, man.” Did they? Who did? The Trump administration “plan” showed that the United States was set to administer at least 170 million doses by the end of April.

I’m skeptical that there was much more Team Trump could have done to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Almost everything we have done has been reactive. Nearly every economic and political system has also struggled to contain the virus. Nearly every state, blue and red. That, however, wasn’t an outlook shared by Democrats, who blamed Trump and Republicans for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of citizens. 

Biden has more power than Trump did — and all the new prez has done is deflect. 

Share this article:

Source: Read Full Article