CNN Fact Check Finds Biden's Vaccine Claim Is False
President Joe Biden made a false claim about the media response to his plans to deliver 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in the first 100 days of his administration, according to a CNN fact check Friday.
Biden took office claiming that he would far outstrip the efforts of former President Donald Trump to vaccinate Americans against the virus. Part of that was his claim in December that he would achieve what he characterized as a lofty goal of 100 million Americans vaccinated in the first 100 days of his presidency.
On Thursday, Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller asked Biden if the goal was “high enough,” since “that’s basically where the U.S. is right now.”
“When I announced it you all said it wasn’t possible. Come on, give me a break, man,” Biden snapped back. “It’s a good start, a hundred million.”
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.
“When I announced it you all said it’s not possible. Come on, give me a break, man.” pic.twitter.com/YnP1gyjnVX
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 21, 2021
But CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale said the president had it wrong.
“Biden’s claim is false; it’s not true that there was an initial media consensus that the 100 million goal was impossible. Some of the early news coverage of the goal did not even question whether it was plausible,” Dale wrote.
He noted that CNN’s own medical experts thought the goal was within reach. At the time, Dr. Sanjay Gupta called the goal “very doable,” Dale said, and medical analyst Dr. Jorge Rodriguez said it was “a realistic goal.”
Some at the time said Biden was aiming too low.
.@JoeBiden‘s “100 million doses in the first 100 days” pledge isn’t aiming high enough.
— Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64) December 9, 2020
Overall, Dale wrote in the fact-check of Biden, “There might well be someone at some media outlet who did say that administering 100 million doses in 100 days was not possible. But Biden told the journalists in the State Dining Room that ‘you all said’ it was impossible, and that’s clearly not true.”
CNN reported that the White House had no official comment about Biden’s claim.
“A Biden aide said on the condition of anonymity that the President was referring to early media coverage that was skeptical about the goal, not saying the goal had been described by the media as ‘literally impossible,'” it said.
The issue of whether the goal was ever really a stretch has emerged because the U.S. is vaccinating more than 900,000 people per day under a vaccination plan developed by the Trump administration and implemented by states and localities.
#JoeBiden promises a ‘wartime effort’ to beat #COVID as he unveils plan for a million vaccinations a day – before it emerges his target is barely 10 PER CENT more than what Trump had already achievedhttps://t.co/eqb04XFav7#Coronavirus #News #VaccinationDrive
— Shinil Payamal (@shinils) January 22, 2021
Bloomberg reported that two former Trump administration officials familiar with the details of Operation Warp Speed — the Trump administration’s effort to vaccinate Americans — said the Biden goal is low.
Trump administration projections estimated that enough vaccine will be available to vaccinate about 170 million people by the end of April, the officials said.
But Biden’s administration is still portraying the goal as a challenge.
“We have looked carefully and we are confident that we have enough vaccines for the 100 million doses over the next 100 days,” Rochelle Walensky, the incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said, according to Bloomberg. “That’s what the president-elect has promised. It will be a hefty lift, but we have it in us to do that.”
As of December, the Trump administration had purchased 200 million vaccine doses from Pfizer, according to a release from the Department of Health and Human Services.
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