Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, blasted President Joe Biden on Monday for promoting a May 1 target of getting all adults lined up for COVID-19 vaccination that is not as "admirable" as it sounds.
McConnell slammed Biden's target for adult COVID-19 vaccination
After Biden gave a prime-time speech last week highlighting vaccine delivery successes and referring to the virus's deadly toll, McConnell called the goal a 'walk-back.' On Thursday, the President proposed another potentially ambitious goal: that by May 1, all adults in all 50 states should be able to schedule vaccines, McConnell said in a floor speech, just days after Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill.
However, McConnell said the problem is Dr. Fauci said a month ago that we would be there by April, as per Daily Mail. Dr. Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert, said last month, "I would think by the time we get to April, it would be what I will consider... Open season, that is, everyone and everybody in either group could start getting vaccinated."
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"So the President's May 1 announcement was not positive news; it was a retreat," McConnell said. He spoke just days after Biden signed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that passed Congress amid Republican resistance under a special budget law. Biden revealed on Monday that former White House official Gene Sperling would be in charge of getting relief out the door as soon as possible.
That the administration inherited a "shambles on vaccination" is a myth, as per McConnell. The Biden Administration inherited a million shots per day rate. "During the week of the Inauguration, we launched over a million shots per day. The day President Biden was sworn in, we had over 1.5 million people," McConnell said.
He believed that the administration was seeking to rewrite history. The incoming Biden team praised Trump's initial work on vaccine growth but said there was insufficient planning for bringing vaccines into people's arms.
The initial rollout was hampered by unreliable websites and general concern about the states' evolving vaccination categories. The administration has increased vaccine development and delivery using the Defense Production Act and other resources, and public support for Biden's handling of the pandemic has risen. Dr. Andy Slavitt, a senior coronavirus advisor, told reporters on Monday that the United States has been averaging 2.4 million shots per day for the last seven days.
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McConnell: Biden must-see nobody's waiting to gather outdoors
Mitch McConnell mocked President Biden's recommendation that people wait until July 4 to have "small" outdoor events, as per the NY Post. McConnell called it unscientific and revealed Biden's lack of current social activities. As COVID-19 infections decline, McConnell said Biden's use of a prime-time speech Thursday to encourage people to wait until Independence Day to hold small backyard gatherings was "bizarre and problematic."
The Senate Republican leader was a polio survivor as a child and was an early supporter of masks used during the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he said, Biden must understand that research has shown that vaccines work and that the chance of viral infection is much lower outside. "As of next week, outdoor gatherings of up to 50 people will be allowed here in the District of Columbia," McConnell added.
The target, according to McConnell, is "out of step with science," National Review via Yahoo reported. According to new pandemic recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinated Americans can now meet in small groups indoors without masks, and elderly vaccinated Americans can visit their unvaccinated grandchildren. In a speech marking a year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus crisis a pandemic, Biden said that if Americans continue to follow prevention recommendations, they will be able to observe the Fourth of July in small groups.
