'They lied & got caught': After falsely saying that vaccines were not available when Biden entered office, White House admits its claim was inaccurate

Article Originally Posted on TheBlaze.com

Sourced from: https://www.theblaze.com/news/white-house-misstated-vaccine-available

After getting called out for falsely stating that COVID-19 vaccines were not available when President Biden entered office last year, the White House has issued a tweet admitting the inaccuracy of its claim.

“When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available,” the White House claimed in a tweet on Thursday.

“We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021. We should have said that they were not widely available. Vaccines became available shortly before the President came into office. Since then, he’s responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people,” the White House tweeted on Friday.

The admission comes after many people, including mainstream media fact checkers, had pointed out that the White House’s initial claim was total bogus.

Prior to the Jan. 20, 2021, inauguration, President-elect Biden had already received two vaccine shots and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris had received one shot — she received her second shot shortly after entering office.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 3 million people had been fully vaccinated by the time Biden entered office, while nearly 19 million people had received at least one dose as of Jan. 20, 2021.

“They lied & got caught,” Dan McLaughlin of National review tweeted in response to the White House’s admission of inaccuracy.

“I suspect you knew this claim was false…because both Biden and Harris got a shot BEFORE being sworn in. Oh, and you’re welcome. #ProjectWarpSpeed” tweeted J. Hogan Gidley, who previously served principal deputy press secretary under Present Donald Trump, and as national press secretary for the Trump campaign.

The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and the CDC each report a slightly different number of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, but both place the death toll a bit shy of the one million mark.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said during an interview on “PBS NewsHour” that fewer people would have died from COVID-19 if more people had been vaccinated. Fauci is also the chief medical advisor to President Biden.

“It’s estimated that if people had been vaccinated to a much greater extent right now that vaccines would’ve avoided at least a quarter of those deaths, namely about 250,000,” Fauci said.

While many Americans have chosen to get the shots, others have declined. Some people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted have still tested positive for the illness.

“COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are effective at protecting people from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and even dying—especially people who are boosted,” the CDC states.