Tipsheet

'No Plan' Update: 20 Million-Plus Vaccine Doses Now Administered in US, More Than 1 Million Daily

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  January 25, 2021 10:30 AM

As CNN breathlessly ran with the bogus "scoop" that the Biden administration had been left with no vaccine distribution plan, forcing the new president's team to "start from scratch," the narrative began disintegrating almost instantly. It was patently untrue, as should have been obvious to literally anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention to actual events. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was borderline worshiped by many on the Left during the Trump administration, slapped down the claim in no uncertain terms – so definitively, in fact, that even some of CNN's on-air personalities rejected their own network's reporting. Here's Fauci late last week, in case you missed it:


For those credulous enough to continue to believe the "from scratch" tale, let's check in on some updates from over the weekend:


The cumulative statistics generally lag by a few days due to the reporting system, so we're likely blowing past 25 million by this point, not to mention the million-plus daily pace that has been achieved. Not bad for "no plan," eh? America still has real challenges on this front – bottlenecks, dysfunction, supply issues, etc., all of which demand serious attention and improvement. Flaws and shortcomings absolutely exist and must be addressed. Nobody is arguing any of this is perfection, or anything close to it. But among Western nations with reliable data, the US ranks third on per capita vaccination doses administered, vastly outperforming all of continental Europe. A bronze medal isn't a gold, of course, but it's clear evidence that worst-case doomsaying from some quarters is simply untrue. I've hardly been an unflinching apologist for President Trump's approach to, or messaging on, the pandemic. But overlooking good news is indefensible, as is attributing failures to political actors when the facts don't support it (this Reuters piece is especially instructive on that point). For some of that good news, I recommend this worthwhile column by Alicia Smith about the remarkable success of Operation Warp Speed, which Team Biden is fortunate to inherit. And there's another very positive development on the vaccine front, evidently right around the corner:

The first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine could get emergency approval in just two weeks, Dr. Anthony Fauci said late Friday. “I would be surprised if it was any more than two weeks from now that the data will be analyzed and decisions would be made” about the vaccine being developed by New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, Fauci said during an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “We’ll look at the data and determine if it’s ready to be given to the public,” Fauci said, “so they can go to the FDA to ask if they can get an emergency use authorization.” Fauci said the US government was working with different companies on six vaccine candidates, two of which have already gotten the go-ahead for use on an emergency basis, one from Pfizer and the other from Moderna. These two both require cold storage and two doses. The J&J vaccine doesn’t have the same need to be kept super-cold, Fauci said, and only requires one dose.

There's more:

Johnson & Johnson board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC that “if the clinical trial works out,” the company could significantly increase the nation’s Covid vaccine supply availability within the coming weeks.  “I do know that J&J is making a very large supply, going all out with its production, both here in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, with the goal of having perhaps enough vaccines for 100 million Americans by spring, by this April or so,” said the former FDA Commissioner in a Thursday evening interview

Initial indicators about the safety and efficacy of J&J's one-and-done jab are very encouraging. Imagine the efficient breakthrough of tens of millions of doses of one-stop, easy-to-store vaccine doses flooding the market, in addition to the massive progress with the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Hopefully that ball will get rolling in a matter of weeks. In the meantime, Team Biden is busy whispering falsehoods to gullible reporters, and lashing out at journalists who point out that the US was already on track to achieve the president's big "100 million vaccine doses in 100 days" goal:

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Bloomberg also piled on in a piece headlined, "Biden's 100-Day Vaccine Goal Was Nearly Met Before He Arrived." It's not subtle. Neither is the heel-turn shift in tone Biden himself is attempting, from "elect me and I'll fix it," to "there's not much we can really do in the near term":


I'll leave you with failures on each coast. First, in California, where the pandemic has been raging terribly (in spite of some of the most intense government restrictions in the country), and where vaccination progress is dead last in the nation. The little people just wouldn't understand the complex data, you see:


And last but not least, there's New York, where the situation has been worsening lately (New York already has the highest COVID death toll in the country). Here's some advice from the very man who wrote a book touting his own success in handling the pandemic, having also accepted numerous awards for the same: