Biden slams Trump team’s Covid-19 vaccine deployment as too slow, vowing to speed it up

Outgoing president back on golf course in Florida as his replacement promises faster deployment program

President-elect Joe Biden sharply criticised the Trump administration over its Covid-19 vaccination deployment, saying it is too slow and promising a more robust effort once he takes office.

“As I long feared and warned, the effort to distribute the vaccine is not going … as it could go,” the incoming chief executive said of the vaccine distribution effort being led by the outgoing one, Donald Trump, who has mostly left the last stages of getting the drugs into arms in the hands of state and local officials.

Mr Biden said he has “instructed my team to prepare a much more aggressive effort” intended to “boost the pace of vaccinations.”

But it won’t happen as soon as he is sworn in on 20 January, he warned.

“This will take more time than anyone would like and longer than the promises of the Trump administration have suggested,” Mr Biden said, vowing to put in place a “vast new effort that’s not yet underway.”

As Mr Trump again golfed at one of his resorts in South Florida, the former Vice President said he would “move heaven and earth to get us going in the right direction.”

One of things he intends to do is use the Defense Production Act to “order private industry to accelerate” production of vaccine-related materials.

Democrats have long complained Mr Trump has not used the act, which gives a commander in chief vast powers to use the private sector during emergencies, often enough.

The incoming president has been blunt about the still-spiking number of Covid cases.

“Things are going to get worse before they get better,” he said on Tuesday, noting the United States is recording around 2,200 coronavirus deaths each day..

Americans should anticipate “tens of thousands of more lives [lost] in the months to come,” he said. 

But it was a beefed-up vaccine effort that was his main focus less than a month before he will take over.

“We are planning a whole-of-government effort.  We will work to set-up vaccination sites and send mobile units to hard-to-reach communities,” he said, taking no questions from shouting reporters as he left the stage at a rented theatre.

He promised to get the inoculation into minority communities, indirectly acknowledging the country’s poor record of vaccinations and minorities.

“We also know there is vaccine hesitancy in many communities, especially in Black, Latino, and Native American communities who have not always been treated with the dignity and honesty they deserve by the federal government and the scientific community throughout our history,” he said. "That’s why we will launch a massive public education campaign to increase vaccine acceptance.

“We will do everything we can to show the vaccines are safe and critically important for one’s own health and that of their family and community,” Mr Biden said. “That means we will also make sure the vaccine is distributed equitably, so every person who wants the vaccine can get it no matter the colour of their skin or where they live.”