That CNN story claiming there was no vaccine distribution plan was Biden camp spin (Update)

This morning Ed picked up on a CNN story headlined “Biden inheriting nonexistent coronavirus vaccine distribution plan and must start ‘from scratch,’ sources say.” Here’s a bit of what CNN’s MJ Lee reported:

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“There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch,” one source said.

Another source described the moment that it became clear the Biden administration would have to essentially start from “square one” because there simply was no plan as: “Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence.”

Ed was quick to point out that this sounded like a metric ton of blame-shifting:

Maybe the Biden team would be better advised to start thinking outside the box rather than reflexively pre-empting criticism by complaining about their predecessors. That’s especially true when the only reason the vaccines exist in the first place is because their predecessors took unprecedented action to ensure their production.

Actually, it’s worse than that. As Fox News pointed out, even journalists on the left are stating that this simply isn’t true.

Sam Stein linked an 11-page document subtitled “The Operation Warp Speed Strategy for Distributing a COVID-19 Vaccine.”

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Dan Diamond from the Washington Post revealed that people from the Biden camp had been making this claim to reporters but said it looked to him like an obvious attempt to lower expectations.

Others were less charitable:

https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/1352323352367685635

Diamond also pointed out that Biden’s 100 million in 100 days vaccination goal is barely above what we are already doing with the non-existent plan:

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If the difference between no plan and the Biden plan is 88,000 doses per day, that’s not much to brag about is it? When Biden was asked about this today by an AP reporter he replied, “Come on, give me a break, man.”

It’s quite a change in tone. Back in October, Biden was brimming with confidence about his ability to crush the virus:

That was then but on day two of his administration his flaks are begging the media to help them lower expectations and Biden himself is asking for a break. Sorry, champ, you asked for this job. It’s time to stop whining about the other guy and get it done.

The final nail in this particular coffin was hammered in by none other than Dr. Fauci. As Allahpundit noted in an update here, Fauci said today “We certainly are not starting from scratch.” So, yeah, this was pure partisan spin and CNN not only ran this bogus story but gave anonymity to the frauds who spread it.

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Update: This Twitter thread really points out how far and wide this story went today. Some highlights:

Even Hillary jumped on this:

This was one of the biggest news stories of the day. Kudos to the handful of reporters who pointed didn’t just go along with the herd and pointed out this was nonsense.

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Jazz Shaw 7:20 PM | March 18, 2024
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