Placing Blame

 Clearly the plan to get the COVID vaccines out to the public is, so far--in the words of my kids--an epic fail. The issue now is how to fix it, and to do that, we need to know where the problem really is.

My first impulse is to put the blame squarely on the Trump Administration. I suspect, just as it was for the entire four years, they talked a good game but couldn't really play. They were really good at marketing--"Operation Warp Speed," anyone?--but really terrible at actually implementing their cleverly named plans....or at actually having a plan to go with the name. Too often--and this is one of those times, I think--the plan was "Here, we're going to give you all this stuff...now, you figure out how to distribute it and pay for the distribution." It's a way to avoid responsibility.

Second, I have to think that Pfizer and Moderna share some blame as well. Clearly they were not able to ramp up production as quickly as they promised. Now, that may not be entirely their fault; it may be that important ingredients in the manufacturing process are supplied by third parties and those ingredients are the bottleneck--whether because the suppliers are not able to meet demand or because they are coming from overseas and the pandemic itself is causing disruptions to the supply chain.

Third, the state and local governments have to take some responsibility as well. The experience with the PPE supply chain in the spring should have warned them that the federal government, at least under the Trump administration, could not be relied upon to meet its commitments...and that they would need to be prepared to deal with that incompetence. In some cases, it seems the state and local authorities just threw up their hands and said, "We don't have a plan--it's a free-for-all, first-come, first-served, line up and take your chances...." (Florida seems to be the prime example of that.)

It is, of course, too soon to put any blame on the Biden administration; they haven't even been in charge for a week yet. That hasn't stopped some on the right-wing and GOP side of things from pointing fingers: "You said you'd be better at this, why hasn't it improved yet?"

Will it improve? I certainly hope so.