20 million doses of US vaccines disappeared … Biden embarrassed by Trump’s unplanned

US President Joe Biden, who said, “We will allow 100 million people to get the Corona 19 vaccine in 100 days after taking office,” met an ambush from the start of the inauguration. Tens of millions of doses of vaccines sent by the former administration of Donald Trump to each state disappeared in transit. The Biden administration is working with the state to track the location, but there are concerns that it could hurt the overall response to COVID-19.

Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at New York Hospital who received the first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States last December.[ AP=연합뉴스]

On the 30th (local time), the US political media Politico On the 10th day of its inauguration, the Biden administration reported that it was still lagging time keeping track of the vaccine supply.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine tracking system, 49 million doses were distributed as of the morning, and 27 million doses were given. Excluding the 2 million doses waiting for data entry after vaccination is complete, The whereabouts of the remaining 20 million episodes are in an ambiguous state.

Government officials pointed out that the problem was raised because the Trump administration did not manage in detail the transport process of vaccines originated from the federal government.Are doing.

During the Trump administration, the federal government was only responsible for the vaccinations until the factory shipment stage, and the subsequent processes such as transportation and vaccination were left to the state government. Accordingly, vaccines were administered differently according to local conditions, and the state government only counted the daily dose and reported it to the federal government.

On the 13th of last month, express trucks are arriving at the Pfizer vaccine factory in Calamer, Michigan, USA. [EPA=연합뉴스]

This means that neither the federal government nor the state government systematically managed where and how vaccines distributed nationwide were administered and vaccinated. Politico explained that no one knows whether the 20 million doses of vaccines that have disappeared are still in motion or if they are stacked in warehouses or freezers.

The Biden administration, which has professed a speedy vaccination war, has been unable to hide its embarrassment. The Biden administration, which failed to obtain cooperation from the Trump administration during the transition committee, said it expected to gain more information by entering the White House. However, they were embarrassed because they didn’t have any strategy, officials from the transition committee said.

White House Secretary Ron Klein, in an interview with NBC Broadcasting, complained that “the entire administration did not have a proper vaccine distribution plan,” and “the vaccination situation we saw was very confusing and limited.”

In an interview with Fox News on the 25th, Rochelle Wallensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said, “It takes time to understand the vaccine supply status.” [로이터=연합뉴스]

CDC Director Rochelle Wallensky said in an interview with various media last week, “Even the US government does not know exactly how much Corona 19 vaccine we have. “I do” he said.

The problem is in the future. Health experts say that the vaccination strategy will need to be reviewed from the ground up, which will adversely affect the Biden administration’s COVID-19 policy. In particular, the work will be increased, including asking the federal government for clear guidance on how the state will manage its assigned vaccines, Politico said.

Craig Fugate, who was the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the Barack Obama administration, predicted that the initial difficulties will lead to a series of delays.

Reporter Lee Min-jung [email protected]