MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Kamala Harris branded 'liar' for contradicting Dr Fauci on Covid-19 plan and saying 'we're starting from scratch'

'We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution,' Fauci had said earlier

Vice President Kamala Harris has contradicted Dr Anthony Fauci by claiming in a new interview that President Joe Biden's administration is "starting from scratch" to devise a national vaccine distribution plan because former President Donald Trump allegedly did not have a plan in place. 

“There was no national strategy or plan for vaccinations, we were leaving it to the states and local leaders to try and figure it out,” Harris told ​'Axios on HBO' on February 14, disputing claims made by Fauci last month. “In many ways, we are starting from scratch on something that’s been raging for almost an entire year,” she added.

RELATED ARTICLES

Did Anthony Fauci earn more than Donald Trump in 2019? Internet slams 'highest-paid US federal employee'

Is Biden White House leaking Trump's health info? Ex-POTUS was much sicker with Covid-19 than believed: Report

According to Harris, she constantly asks the White House coronavirus team if there is “capacity to do more?”

​​”The suffering is so immense in terms of both the public health crisis, the number of people who have died, the number of people who’ve contracted it, and the economic crisis," she continued. “We’ve got to figure out a way ​–— that has to be our standard. Our standard has to be: ‘Everything is possible, but we’re going to have to work like heck to get it done.’ Which means, no patience for delay, no patience for, ‘it can’t be done.’ You know, that’s how I feel about it​,” Harris said in the interview. 

During a White House briefing on January 21, Fauci was asked in his position as chief medical adviser to Biden whether the WH coronavirus team was starting from scratch with regards to vaccine distribution or it was carrying forward the plan set forth by the Trump administration. ​”We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution,” Fauci said at the time.​

However, he noted that Biden was trying to develop more community vaccine centers and ramp up vaccine production and manufacturing of needles and syringes using the Defense Production Act. “​So it’s taking what’s gone on, but amplifying it in a big way​,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert​, added.

As reported by the New York Post, his remarks came shortly after Biden slammed Trump for the lack of a vaccine rollout plan — albeit distribution was already underway when he took office. “For the past year, we couldn’t rely on the federal government to act with the urgency and focus we needed and we have seen the tragic cost of that failure: 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day,” Biden told reporters. “While the vaccine provides so much hope, the rollout has been a dismal failure thus far.”​

Fauci was asked about Biden's comments at the briefing, and he responded by saying the team is going to "quicken the pace" from before, according to The Post. ​”We’re coming in with fresh ideas, but also some ideas that were not bad ideas with the ​— with the previous administration. You can’t say it was absolutely not usable at all. So we are continuing, but you’re going to see a real ramping-up of it​,” he said.​

Twitter users called out Vice President Harris over her statements contradicting those of Fauci.

"Kamala also said "there was no stockpile...of vaccines." Totally bizarre. Vaccines were mass-produced then distributed to states to get shots in arms. U.S. was doing ~1 million doses/day as Trump left office & that # was rising. Why would the U.S. have a "stockpile" lying around?" reporter Jerry Dunleavy tweeted, later adding: "Axios deleted the tweet on the left which pointed out that Kamala’s claim seemed to be contradicted by what Fauci has said, and Axios replaced it with the Kamala tweet on the right which no longer includes the context from Fauci."

"No joke, and guess what else the fact-checkers are silent about? Kamala Harris made the statement “there was no distribution plan and we inherited no vaccines”!! This was debunked last week by Dr. Fauci,!! Fact-checkers at Wapo and CNN? SILENT!" another user added. Another user said: "Fauci dismissed this lie weeks ago. Either Kamala is just lying to lie (would not be the first time) or she’s just not looped in to what the White House is doing." Yet another chimed in: "Kamala Harris said Dr Fauci is wrong! Are we going to let her get away with that? Didnt2take long for that V.P. title to inflate her already inflated ego!"