Former leader of Operation Warp Speed Moncef Slaoui said on Sunday that President Biden’s vaccine plan is “90%” derived from the Trump administration.
When asked if it’s “fair” to insist former President Donald Trump’s team “had not contracted for enough vaccine doses,” Slaoui said Biden’s rollout is markedly similar to the defeated Republican’s initiatives.
“I think that’s a very negative description of the reality,” Slaoui said during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. “I do think that we had plans, and in fact, 90% of what’s happening now is the plan that we had. Of course, the first thing was to accelerate the development of the vaccine. We contracted specifically 100 million doses of vaccine but also built into the contract options to acquire more vaccines once we knew they are effective.”
He continued, “And the plan was to order more vaccines when — when we knew they are more effective. So I think what’s happening is right. But I think what’s happening is, frankly, what was the plan. Substantially what was the plan.”
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However, Slaoui conceded that sports arena vaccine sites and the participation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency were not initially part of the former president’s goals when pushed on the subject.
“I think in terms of manufacturing and supply and distribution, which is the physical shipment of vaccine to immunization sites, the answer is yes, because there’s a ramp-up in manufacturing, as always happens,” he said. “And that’s what we are experiencing and seeing. I do think that in terms of immunization and shots in arms, in particular the large vaccination sites in sports arenas and- and the likes and the participation of FEMA, those were not parts of the plan, and they are participating to accelerate, I think to some extent, the immunization. But the bulk of vaccine distribution is happening in the healthcare centers and now in the pharmacies. And that was all part of the plan.”
Slaoui added that Trump, and those in his orbit, failed to “communicate” that vaccines would be arriving in a “slow” fashion, addressing criticism from governors and local leaders in the early stages of the rollout.
“I think we have failed to communicate the fact that vaccine doses availability is going to be, you know, slow over time because — because we went so fast,” he said. “There is no stock of vaccine. It was impossible to have enough vaccine doses quickly enough compared to the expectations. So we were unable, as we communicated in the month of November and December and January, to — to manage the expectation.”
In early March remarks, Biden claimed the Trump administration was under-prepared in its vaccine supply.
“When I came into office, the prior administration had contracted for not nearly enough vaccine to cover adults in America,” he said. “We rectified that. About three weeks ago, we were able to say that we’ll have enough vaccine supply for adults by the end of July.”
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As of Sunday, the United States has distributed roughly 157,000,000 coronavirus vaccine doses, of which over 121,000,000 have been administered.
