'First I have to be sworn in to give you a timeline': Biden's HHS pick Xavier Becerra ducks question on vaccine roll-out despite Joe pledging 100m shots in first 100 days - as just 11% of voters say vaccination program is 'going very well'
Joe Biden's pick for Health and Human Services secretary couldn't give a straight answer on when every American who wants a vaccine will be able to obtain one as nearly nine in 10 voters say the roll-out isn't going well.
The president vowed before taking his post in the White House – and immediately after – that he would get 100 million shots administered within his first 100 days in office.
HHS secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, however, dodged questions on the vaccine roll-out timeline on Sunday - casting doubt on whether the Biden administration will be able to follow through on its plan.
'The Biden administration is saying the federal government will have a much heavier hand. So give that, what is the timeline, what is the goal for people to get fully vaccinated – anybody who wants it – to have one?' CNN's Dana Bash asked Becerra on 'State of the Union'.
'Well it's a partnership hand, it won't be a heavy hand because we have to work with our state and local partners and –' Becerra started, but was cut off by Bash.
'Can you give me a timeline?' she interjected.
'Well I first have to be sworn in to give you a timeline,' Becerra dodged, before claiming the Biden administration will always give 'straight-shot' information.
A CDC tally updated at 2pm Sunday showed that 21,848,655 vaccines have been administered in the US to date - less than half of the more than 41.4 million already distributed to states.
When Biden took office on January 20, that tally stood at roughly 16.5 million, suggesting that his administration has thus far kept up with its plan to vaccinate one million people per day.
As of Saturday, America had actually surpassed its target of one million vaccine shots a day by administering 1.06m.
Meanwhile the US surpassed a grim milestone of 25 million coronavirus cases on Sunday, with more than 417,900 deaths.
Xavier Becerra, Joe Biden's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, couldn't give a straight answer on when every American who wants a vaccine will be able to get one during a CNN interview on Sunday (pictured) as nearly nine in 10 voters say the roll-out isn't going well
Joe Biden's Chief of Staff Ron Klain doubled down Sunday on the new administration's promise to distribute 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office, claiming: 'We need more vaccines, we need more vaccinators and we need more vaccine sites'
Biden promised he would get 100 million vaccines distributed and administered in his first 100 days as president
A CDC tally updated at 2pm Sunday showed that 21,848,655 vaccines have been administered in the US to date - less than half of the more than 41.4 million already distributed to states. The graphic above shows average daily doses administered to date
The chart above shows vaccines administered in the US to date by state, per Bloomberg
According to an NBC News poll, 11 percent of voters say the vaccine administration, from distribution to shot-in-arm, isn't 'going very well'.
Of the Americans who claim delivery of vaccinations is falling short of the goal post, 64 percent say the federal government is to blame.
The president's team is putting the onus on predecessor Donald Trump for not developing a good plan to distribute vaccines after two different vaccines, from Moderna and Pfizer, were approved for emergency use by the FDA toward the end of his administration.
'We need more vaccines, we need more vaccinators and we need more vaccine sites,' Biden's White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told NBC on Sunday.
He added that the difference between Biden and Trump's administrations is that the current White House will take responsibility for combating the virus.
'We're going to own this problem and work closely with states,' he said.
In his interview with CNN, Becerra painted a bleak picture of America's ongoing coronavirus crisis, saying: 'The plane is in a nosedive, and we've got to pull it up and you're not going to do that overnight.
'It won't happen overnight. We can do better. We can not only control COVID, but get us back to real normality.'
Asked when everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one, Becerra said: 'Well that's a matter of making sure we are coordinating with states, because it's not the federal government that's putting the vaccine in the arms.'
'We’ve got to make sure we're coordinating,' added the Democrat, who recently stepped down as California's attorney general.
'We can't just tell the states: "Here's some PPE, some masks, here's some vaccines — now go do it." When we hand them over, we stay with them and provide resources to make it happen.'
During his first full day as president on Thursday, Biden signed 10 executive orders related to his administration's plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic
In his first full day as president, Biden signed 10 executive orders and actions aimed at the coronavirus pandemic, including boosting vaccine distribution.
His plan to put 100 million shots in arms in his first 100 days drew some scrutiny as critics noted that goal is just 10 percent below what the Trump administration was already doing.
Biden also issued an order for his first 100 days in office mandating masks be worn in all federal buildings and on all federal lands.
He did not address the fact that the Trump administration had already been on that trajectory to boost the number of shots closer to the one million mark.
Shots per day jumped more than 800,000 in the days before Biden's inauguration.
Biden snapped when questioned whether his 100 million shot goal was ambitious enough, saying: 'When I announced it, you all said it's not possible. Come on, gimme' a break man.'
The US has been falling behind many other nations in its vaccine roll-out plan
It comes as daily new COVID-19 cases in the US have fallen to pre-Thanksgiving levels and the number of hospitalizations continues to drop nationwide.
But the number of newly reported fatalities remains high, including in the nation’s most populous county, Los Angeles, even as coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations in hard-hit California continue to fall.
Over the course of the last 24 days, more than 5,000 people in the Los Angeles County region have died due to COVID-19-related complications, according to official data.
That's nearly half of the total number of those killed in LA County by the disease in the first nine months of the pandemic which began in March of last year.
According to the latest data from COVID Tracking Project, 3,577 Americans died of COVID-19 on Saturday - a slight decrease from the 3,980 deaths reported on Friday.
There were also fewer Americans who were hospitalized with COVID-19. As of Saturday, 113,609 people were being treated in hospitals for the illness.
That's a drop from the previous day, when COVID Tracking Project reported 116,264 Americans who were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Just two weeks ago, there were more than 131,000 Americans who were in the hospital receiving treatment for the disease.
On Saturday, there were 173,729 newly diagnosed cases of COVID-19.
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