Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that the Trump administration had left a “ vague ” plan for the distribution of coronavirus vaccines – while defending Vice President Kamala Harris’ claims that President Biden’s team had to “ start from scratch ” when it took office.
Harris made the claim to “Axios on HBO” last Sunday evening and the infectious disease expert was asked about the comment during an interview on “Fox News Sunday” this week.
Anchor Chris Wallace asked, “Is that true?”
“All we can say is that the infrastructure and the ability to get the vaccines into the arms of the people was very vague in planning, as I have said before. I mean, it was clearly not that nothing was done because we developed the vaccine, we had them made and they were shipped, ”said Fauci.
He said critics should give Harris “a break” because she didn’t mean “from scratch.”
“I mean, we clearly had vaccines that we were giving to people, even before the end of the year. So what she was talking about and I’m sure you can ask her again she will say it was the process of getting it smoothly into people’s arms which was a difficulty very early on, we just get there over now, ”Fauci continued.
Since taking office, Fauci said Biden has been trying to expand distribution of the vaccine by taking it to community centers, pharmacies and mobile units, as well as hiring health workers to get the shots in people’s arms.
“I believe the vice president was referring to the fact that when you talk about the things I just mentioned, they were out of place when the president came in after the inauguration,” Fauci said.
In his comments at a Pfizer manufacturing site in Michigan on Friday, Biden also pointed the finger at his predecessor.
Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor – as my mom would say, “God loves him” – didn’t order enough vaccines, mobilize the effort to administer the injections, set up vaccine centers. That changed when we took office, ”he said.