Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed, admitted Monday that there has been a lag in the numbers of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered, but the federal government's handling of the shots distribution has gone well.
“What we had committed to is to have 20 million doses of vaccine available for the American people to be immunized,” Slaoui told CNN "New Day" host Alisyn Camerota before she pointed out that Trump administration officials and he himself had initially projected that 20 million Americans would have gotten their vaccinations by the end of the year.
"Yes, so I did say that and that was our hope, and I in a way, it's really interesting we are in this situation," said Slaoui. "The virus has been discovered 11 months ago. We have two vaccines. We have made 14 million doses, we have delivered 20 million doses."
He added that "obviously" he wishes 20 million people had already gotten their shots, but "we worked day and night to have these vaccines available, and we will continue to work day and night to have them immunized."
Slaoui also denied to Camerota that the administration is "washing our hands of" the vaccine, and accused CNN of saying the vaccines wouldn't be out by the end of the year, which Camerota denied.
"We have ambitious goals and if it didn't work to vaccinate 20 million people, we want to work with the governors, with the health department of each state," said Slaoui.
He also said he is optimistic the vaccinations will ramp up.
"There has been I'm sure in each state opportunities to understand how they could do better," said Slaoui. "They will do better, and they will ask us for help. We are inviting them to ask them for help and we will help them."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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