In fact, Operation Warp Speed was much more than fast vaccine R&D. Biden’s claims are, at best, disingenuous.
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Biden frequently makes 2 related Covid-specific claims:
1. “There were no vaccines available when I took office and not enough to vaccinate America.”
2. “The Trump administration didn’t have a plan for getting people vaccinated. We had to start from completely from scratch.”
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The first claim — not enough vaccine ordered — is indisputably false
Let’s start with the pre-approval vaccine commitments made mid-2020.
As part of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration entered into contracts with multiple drugmakers … while their potential vaccines were still in clinical trials.
- Pfizer-BioNTech: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen)
- Moderna: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen)
- J&J: 100 million doses (one-dose regimen)
- AstraZeneca: 300 million doses (two-dose regimen)
- Novavax: 100 million doses (two-dose regimen)
- Sanofi-GSK: 100 million doses (one- or two-dose regimen)
In all, the amounts agreed to under these pre-commitment contracts totaled about 800 million vaccine doses, or enough for more than 450 million people. Source
The Pfizer vaccine was approved on December 11, 2020.
Roughly 2 weeks later, on December 23. 2020, HHS signed an agreement with Pfizer for an additional 100 million doses … with options to purchase an additional 400 Million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Source
So, Trump’s Operation Warp Speed delivered to the Biden administration orders and options for 600 million doses of just the Pfizer vaccine — enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.
Add in just the pre-commitments to Moderna and J&J and the total swells to 800 million doses — enough to vaccinate 450 million people.
By inauguration day, almost 40 million doses had already been distributed to the states and the daily vaccination rate was passing through the 1 million shots per day mark.
Since inauguration day, an average of about 1.6 million shots have been administered daily — a function of increased supplies (from manufacturers) and improved coverage and efficiency.
The supply flows have continued to increase.
How much of that is attributable to Team Biden’s claimed magic touch and how much of that is simply implementation ramp-up of Trump’s OWS plan?
That’s a question which naturally raises the second claim…
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So, is the second claim “no vaccination plan, starting from scratch” true?
While there may be some dispute about the depth and appropriateness of the Trump administration’s plan, there was one … and, by and large, it’s exactly the plan that Team Biden is implementing.
Let’s get specific…
