Fact check: White House tweet falsely claims 'there was no vaccine available' when Biden took office
From WWW.CNN.COM
Washington (CNN) — The official White House Twitter account tweeted Thursday about the sharp decline in the unemployment rate during President Joe Biden's tenure -- but the tweet began with a false claim about Covid-19 vaccinations.
"When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available," the tweet said.
Facts First: It's just not true that "there was no vaccine available" at the time Biden took office. About 3.5 million people were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and about 19 million people had received at least one vaccine dose as of Biden's inauguration day on January 20, 2021, according to statistics published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US was already administering an average of more than 1 million doses a day at the time. The first doses administered outside trials were given on December 14, 2020, while President Donald Trump was still in office. And Biden himself received his second dose nine days before he was sworn in.
Biden got the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which obtained emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration under Trump on December 11, 2020. Moderna's vaccine was authorized for emergency use on December 18, 2020.
The White House could accurately say that vaccine availability was limited when Biden took office. It wasn't until April 2021, about three months into Biden's presidency, that all adults in every state were eligible for the vaccine. States' early rollouts generally restricted the vaccine to health care personnel and other essential workers, residents of long-term care facilities, and seniors. At the time Biden was inaugurated, it was often difficult even for people in eligible groups to secure an appointment.
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Submitted 382 days ago
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