Biden vows more vigorous federal effort to counter the pandemic

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Wed, 2020-12-30 09:34 — mike kraft

Biden criticizes Trump’s coronavirus effort, vows extensive federal response The president-elect said he would increase the production of materials needed for vaccines, as well as ramping up their distribution. Jenna Johnson, Amy B Wang, Chelsea Janes Washington Post

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday cast President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as meager and insufficient, as he vowed to fully use the federal government’s powers once inaugurated to speed the production and dispersal of vaccines and protective equipment.

Biden said he would invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of materials needed for the coronavirus vaccines. The law, enacted in 1950, gives the president the power to compel companies to produce and distribute supplies. Trump has invoked the act several times to increase the manufacturing of ventilators, among other items.

Biden said that the Trump administration has yet to fully scale up testing — “that’s a travesty,” he said — and that its vaccine distribution efforts were also lagging behind what had been promised. ...

Trump responded to Biden on Twitter on Tuesday evening by shifting blame to state officials, whom he said are responsible for distribution.

“It is up to the States to distribute the vaccines once brought to the designated areas by the Federal Government,” he wrote. “We have not only developed the vaccines, including putting up money to move the process along quickly, but gotten them to the states.”

Trump’s tweet underscored the deep differences between his approach and the one promised by his successor. Trump has regularly put responsibility for acquiring protective supplies and arranging testing — and now distributing vaccines — on state governments stretched as they deal with the twin catastrophes of the pandemic and the economic collapse. At times that approach has set states at odds, vying for items as essential as masks for hospital workers.

Biden has vowed a far more robust and unified federal response that would utilize the heft of the U.S. government to prevent state competition.

The president-elect said he would find ways to speed up the production of vaccines and their distribution so that one million people can be vaccinated each day, which he said would be five to six times the current rate. ...

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