Bloomberg: Say, Doesn’t Biden’s “New” Vaccine Plan Look … Familiar?

[PeteS in CA]

Bloomberg: Say, Doesn’t Biden’s “New” Vaccine Plan Look … Familiar?

https://hotair.com/archives/ed-morrissey/2021/03/24/bloomberg-say-doesnt-bidens-new-vaccine-plan-look-familiar/

Remember when Joe Biden claimed that Donald Trump left him without COVID-19  vaccines or a plan to distribute them? Even the media didn’t buy that, considering that the US averaged just under a million inoculations a day when Biden took office. In fact, Republicans have claimed all along that Biden has basically run Trump’s playbook.

Looks like the media has caught up to this fact as well. How else to explain this morning’s headline at Bloomberg on Biden’s vaccine plan?



... The report from Josh Wingrove is equally worthy, making it clear that when it comes to vaccine strategy, there isn’t a dime’s difference between the Trump and Biden plans for acquisition. However, Wingrove isn’t entirely complimentary in this recognition:

From the moment the FDA authorized the first vaccines by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., the U.S. government, first under Donald Trump and then under President Joe Biden, had already arranged to buy all of the companies’ known U.S. production for months to come, assuring hundreds of millions of doses for American arms. …

The achievement is due to contracts that obligate manufacturers to fill massive U.S. government orders first, a de facto ban on vaccine exports despite Biden administration officials repeatedly saying there’s no formal prohibition. In exchange, companies get crucial aid procuring supplies. The nationalist approach taken by both Biden and Trump has been criticized by some allies and public health experts.

...
Why has the EU started singing another tune? They wanted the US to join them in broad global distribution of vaccines as a demonstration of “equity.” However, their singular bet on AstraZeneca and penny-pinching on dose prices put them behind the US with other manufacturers. As a result, their vaccination programs have stalled, and a new spike in COVID-19 cases has EU residents angry and locking down again. That has leaders worried about political accountability.

Some lies are what is told; other lies are what is not told. Varying by company, the Trump administration funded development, funded testing, accelerated the testing processes (e.g. partly concurrent Phases), funded necessaries such as increased vial and needle production, and negotiated purchase contracts (conditional on FDA approval) months in advance of approvals. How is it "equity" for US taxpayers to have funded all that and then have some of it given out right away to EuroLanders, whose gooberment mismangled their efforts so badly? Or to countries whose Third-Worldliness keeps their risk low because people don't visit them all that often? Few Biden actions wrt vaccines will have significant effect until May or June, simply because of the magnitude of what Trump and OWS set in motion.

[jmyrlefuller]

Few Biden actions wrt vaccines will have significant effect until May or June, simply because of the magnitude of what Trump and OWS set in motion.

By that time, we will likely have already reached herd immunity, or close to it. I saw a statistic saying that somewhere around 70% of people over 65 in America have received at least one of the two shots (so far, Johnson and Johnson, since they have only recently been approved, lags well behind the Pfizer and Moderna two-shots).