Xavier Becerra dodges on vaccination timeline: ‘I first have to be sworn in’

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Health and Human Services secretary nominee Xavier Becerra avoided giving a direct answer on what the Biden administration’s timeline for developing a more robust vaccine distribution plan will look like.

During an interview with CNN’s State of the Union, Becerra said that he “ha[d] to be sworn in to give you a timeline” but emphasized that he and the Biden administration want to give people “straight-shot information.”

“I first have to be sworn in to give you a timeline but what I can tell you is this,” Becerra said. “President Biden has made it very clear to us. We give people straight shot information. We don’t try to hide the ball. Once we have that information, I guarantee you, we will share it.”

Under the Trump administration, vaccine distribution and administration were left to each state to develop their own plans — Biden plans to change that.

“The process of establishing priority groups was driven by science, but the problem is implementation has been too rigid and confusing,” Biden said last week. His plan involves a combination of increasing funding that goes toward vaccination and expanding the priority vaccination groups to include people older than 65 years of age, essential workers, and those living in remote communities.

When asked if he could provide a “general timeline,” Beccera responded, “Let’s put it this way. The president, before he had an opportunity to be in the Oval Office for one day, had already committed 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days. That’s based on the information they were able to gather. Once we’re in the house taking care of business, we’ll be able to give more precision — but you got to give us a chance to figure out what’s going on in the cockpit, causing this plane to nosedive so severely.”

When Biden first announced his plan to vaccinate 100 million people in 100 days, critics questioned the feasibility of the initiative, and even supporters cautioned that it would get off to a rocky start. Now, many have said the incoming administration set the bar too low and needs to pick up the pace even further.

“In a week that partly took place during the Trump administration, we’ve already met Biden’s target of 1m vaccine doses/day,” FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver tweeted. “We need a higher target.”

When asked by a reporter on Thursday whether his plan was not ambitious enough, Biden said, “When I announced it, you all said it wasn’t possible. Come on, give me a break.”

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