‘Inheriting a mess’: grim outlook for Biden goal of 100m Covid vaccinations in 100 days

Joe Biden has been promising Americans that “help is on the way” since his election, with a goal of inoculating 100 million people with the Covid-19 vaccine within the first 100 days of his presidency.

But just days away from his inauguration, Biden is reportedly frustrated with his own coronavirus taskforce, and concerned they might not reach their goal in time, according to Politico.

The president-elect reportedly told Jeff Zients, head of the taskforce, and his deputy, Natalie Quillian, that the team was underperforming.

At least 1,777 new coronavirus deaths, and 208,338 new cases were reported in the US on 10 January, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the past two weeks, there has been a 38% increase in average cases per day from two weeks prior, according to the New York Times. Currently more than 22 million Americans are Covid-19 positive.

Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout under the Trump administration has been rocky at best, with only 7m vaccines administered in the first three weeks, and Biden’s team is discovering that the massive infrastructure needed to disseminate the vaccine at a population level is far from complete. Furthermore, the Trump administration has reportedly been withholding information amid the transition.

“They’re inheriting a mess,” Andy Slavitt, former Obama administration acting Medicare and Medicaid chief, told Politico. “I think they’re uncovering how bad it is.”

There are some internal concerns about the key players in Biden’s taskforce, according to the report. Neither Zients, a well-regarded Obama official, nor Quillian have a public health background, and their approach has been seen as too broad brush. Biden’s choice to retain Trump’s Operation Warp Speed leader, Gen Gustave Perna, has also raised some questions.

Even so, Biden is demanding a departure from the Trump administration’s approach to Covid-19, and has asked his team for more specifics in layman’s terms, reportedly urging advisers to avoid generalities. On one occasion, he reportedly became exasperated with Zients and the team for not arming him with enough details ahead of a meeting between him and state governors.

“He doesn’t want to hear just pipe dream ideas or just the headlines of the plan,” Vivek Murthy, Biden’s surgeon general nominee, told Politico. “I think that’s a good thing because that makes sure the plans are grounded in reality, but I don’t take from those conversation that he doesn’t believe in his team.”

As the incoming administration’s plans fall into place, states are employing drastically different strategies for their vaccine rollout, just as they did with testing, tracing and mitigating the spread of the virus. Texas, for example, is concentrating on 28 hubs to administer thousands of vaccines in the coming days. New York, the first center of the pandemic in the US, is attempting to have 20-minute visits at more than 125 centers to reach its large population.

Meanwhile, Biden himself is scheduled to get his second dose of the vaccine on Monday.