Underscores How Biden Met the Moment to Turn Around Disastrous Response Effort
In response to former White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx speaking out about the Trump administration’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus crisis, Protect Our Care Coronavirus War Room Director Zac Petkanas released the following statement:
“Dr. Birx’s first hand account of President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic response makes it all the more clear how his failure to take the crisis seriously resulted in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths and economic destruction.
“There is no clearer contrast of leadership than watching President Biden inherit the previous administration’s disastrous response effort and aggressively turning it around by listening to the experts, getting direct relief to Americans, more shots in arms and putting the country on a path to defeating the pandemic.
“After the catastrophic failures of the previous administration, President Biden’s evidence based approach to getting the country out of this economic and public health crisis is exactly the leadership the American people have desperately needed.”
BACKGROUND
- HEADLINE: “Birx Tells CNN Most U.S. Covid Deaths ‘Could Have Been Mitigated’ After First 100,000.” [Washington Post, 3/27/21]
- Birx: All Of The Deaths After The First Surge That Killed 100,000 Americans “Could Have Been Mitigated Or Decreased Substantially.” “Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator under President Donald Trump, said most coronavirus deaths in the United States could have been prevented if the Trump administration had acted earlier and more decisively. […] In it, CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta asked Birx how much of a difference she thinks it would have made had the United States ‘mitigated earlier, … paused earlier and actually done it,’ referring to extending shutdowns, urging people to wear masks and implementing other steps to slow the spread of the virus. ‘I look at it this way: The first time, we have an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge,’ Birx told Gupta. ‘All of the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.’” [Washington Post, 3/27/21]
- President Trump, Who Admitted He Downplayed The Severity Of The Virus, Pushed For Cities And States To Reopen In April And May And Started Pushing False Conspiracies About The Virus And Its Mitigation. “Trump, who later admitted that he initially tried to downplay the seriousness of the virus, at first compared it to the flu and suggested the media was in ‘hysteria mode.’ The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and Trump declared a national emergency two days later. In mid- to late March, several states announced stay-at-home orders for nonessential workers in an effort to contain the spread of the virus. By April and May, however, Trump had pushed for cities and states to reopen, and he falsely suggested that the virus could not survive in the sun and that ‘tremendous’ light could kill it off. He also began hyping hydroxychloroquine as an unproven treatment, continued referring to the virus as the ‘China virus’ and questioned the effectiveness of wearing face masks.” [Washington Post, 3/27/21]
Where we were after President Trump’s disastrous handling of the pandemic:
- January 27, 2021: The United States Reported More Than 3,900 Coronavirus Fatalities. “The nation reported more than 3,900 fatalities due to the disease Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to more than 429,000.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/28/21]
- January 28, 2021: More Than 429,000 Americans Had Been Killed By The Coronavirus. “The nation reported more than 3,900 fatalities due to the disease Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to more than 429,000.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/28/21]
January 28, 2021: There Were More Than 100,000 People Hospitalized Across The Country, And More Than 20,000 Being Treated In ICUs. “Hospitalizations, which totaled 107,444 as of Wednesday, have been on the decline since Jan. 12 when the figure was at 131,326, according to the Covid Tracking Project. The number of people in intensive care units also fell slightly to 20,497.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/28/21]
- January 28, 2021: Daily New Infections Were Hovering Around 150,000 Cases. “Newly reported cases hovered around 150,000 for the third day in a row…. Newly reported coronavirus cases for Wednesday topped 152,000, up slightly from the previous day’s revised total of more than 146,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.” [Wall Street Journal, 1/28/21]
- January 2021: Experts Were Warning Against Highly Contagious Variants Of The Virus, One Of Which Had Already Been Identified In 28 States. “Experts say there’s still reason to worry. For one, there are new variants circulating in the US that are threatening another surge and could make even everyday activities more dangerous. Cases of a variant first spotted in the UK have been detected in at least 28 states, new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. And Minnesota officials recently announced the first US case of another variant, detected in a traveler from Brazil.” [CNN, 1/28/21]
- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: The Variants Can “Lead To [An] Increased Number Of Cases And Increased Stress On Our Already Overtaxed System.” “’The variants that have been identified recently seem to spread more easily,’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. ‘They’re more transmissible, which can lead to increased number of cases and increased stress on our already overtaxed system.’” [CNN, 1/28/21]
- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky: The Variants Can “Lead To [An] Increased Number Of Cases And Increased Stress On Our Already Overtaxed System.” “’The variants that have been identified recently seem to spread more easily,’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday. ‘They’re more transmissible, which can lead to increased number of cases and increased stress on our already overtaxed system.’” [CNN, 1/28/21]
- January 2021: Vaccination Efforts In The US Were Hamstrung By Delivery Issues, Insufficient Supply, And Vaccine Hesitancy. “Vaccination efforts in the U.S. have been hamstrung by delivery issues, insufficient supply and hesitancy to get the shots. But to avert another surge of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, scientists say it may be necessary to rethink how the vaccines are rolled out to ramp up the number of shots administered and to protect against new strains of the virus.” [NBC News, 1/28/21]
- January 20, 2021: 900,000 Coronavirus Vaccines Were Being Administered Per Day On Average. [Bloomberg, accessed 3/29/21]
- January 2021: The Trump Administration Failed To Deliver On Their Promise To Deliver The Millions Of Vaccine Doses The President Promised. “Four days after the first coronavirus vaccine received emergency use authorization in the United States, the head of the White House’s Operation Warp Speed vaccine effort appeared on MSNBC. ‘In the month of December, between the two vaccines — the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine — we expect to have immunized 20 million of our American people,’ Moncef Slaoui said on Dec. 15. But despite the Trump administration’s repeated promises to deliver tens or even hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses by the new year, President Trump is set to leave office Wednesday having delivered only a fraction of the doses his administration pledged.” [Washington Post, 1/19/21]
- January 28, 2021: Nearly 850,000 Americans Filed For First-Time Unemployment Benefits In The Previous Week. “America’s unemployment crisis is now President Joe Biden’s problem, and jobless claims in his (partial) first week as president show how far the economy has to go to get back to normal. Another 847,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Department of Labor. It was a decrease from the 914,000 claims in the week before.” [CNN, 1/28/21]
Where we are under President Biden’s leadership:
- March 29, 2021: 2.7 Million Coronavirus Vaccines Were Being Administered Per Day On Average. [Bloomberg, accessed 3/29/21]
- March 29, 2021: Over 143 Million Doses Of The Coronavirus Vaccine Had Been Administered In The US. [Bloomberg, accessed 3/29/21]
- March 28, 2021: The United States Reported 487 Coronavirus Deaths. [New York Times, accessed 3/29/21]
- March 29, 2021: 40,325 People Hospitalized Across The Country. [New York Times, accessed 3/29/21]
- March 29, 2021: Daily New Infections Were Hovering Around 63,000 Cases. [New York Times, accessed 3/29/21]
- March 25, 2021: First-Time Unemployment Claims Fell To 684,000 In The Previous Week. “First-time claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly fell sharply last week amid signs that hiring has picked up in the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Claims totaled 684,000 for the week ended March 20, the first time the number has been below 700,000 during the Covid-19 era. The level was a substantial decline from the 781,000 from a week earlier and was the lowest since March 14, 2020, just as the pandemic had begun.” [CNBC, 3/25/21]