Biden is the perfect antidote to Trump

He's gotten more done on COVID in his first three days than Trump did in a year.

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This has been a week of incredible stories.  Our migraines have eased with the departure of  Donald Trump from both the White House and our television screens.  We had a day of celebration when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated and first moved into their respective offices in the White House.  The Vice President swore in three new Democratic senators, and the Democrats took control of that august body.  Among other revolutionary changes, we’ve now had three utterly normal briefings from the White House by Jen Psaki, who  moved into her new job as Biden’s secretary.  Glory be!

For me, the most extraordinary story of the now three day-old-Biden administration was CNN’s report yesterday that the Trump people had no plan whatsoever for distribution of the COVID vaccines that have been approved for use against the disease.  One source told CNN in astonishment, "There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch.”  Another White House source described the moment they all understood that they would have to begin their planning from “square one”:  “Wow, just further affirmation of complete incompetence."

The Food and Drug Administration issued its first emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine on December 11.  That was followed a week later by approval of the Moderna vaccine on December 18.  According to what we’re just beginning to hear from the Biden White House, the Department of Health and Human Services was so cowed by 12 months of intimidation and lies coming out of Donald Trump about COVID that they have basically been sitting there waiting for the Biden people to arrive and get something going.  That makes sense.  Trump’s denial that COVID is the problem it so obviously exploded into has been absolute and ongoing.  He has done nothing but whine and complain about his loss since November 3rd, not to mention conspiring with everyone from Lindsay Graham to Jim Bob Dangletooth from Dothan, Alabama to overturn the election that awarded Joe Biden the presidency by seven million votes.

Vaccine?  What vaccine?  China!  Dominion!  Where’s Rudy?  Get Rudy in here!  Where’s Sidney?  We’ve got to find those votes they hid under the table in Georgia!

Three days into the Biden administration, they’ve stopped looking under desks and tables for the vaccine plan, because there isn’t one.  With more than 400,000 dead from the virus, the plain truth is, there never was a plan to distribute vaccines, just like there was never a federal plan to fight COVID on a unified, country-wide basis. 

Joe Biden walked into the White House on Wednesday ready to go with a dozen executive orders covering everything from protecting the Dreamers to rejoining the Paris climate accord.  By yesterday, however, the task of dealing with the failures of Trump’s response to COVID were coming into focus.  Yesterday, after releasing a comprehensive plan called the “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness,” Biden signed a flurry of executive orders focusing exclusively on dealing with COVID.  He invoked the Defense Preparedness Act, accelerating manufacturing and delivery of vaccines and personal preparedness equipment.  He ordered that national collection and sharing of COVID data be enhanced.  He ordered FEMA to create a national system of vaccination centers, and to cover the costs states incur for National Guard troops and COVID supplies.  He ordered the wearing of masks on all forms of interstate transportation including planes, trains, and buses.  And he ordered for the first time that the Department of Education and HHS jointly produce a national plan and standards for reopening schools, day care centers, and colleges – something which, to no one’s surprise, had never been done. 

There were several other COVID orders that he signed, but you get the picture.  Joe Biden, his White House staff, and his entire government aren’t playing catch-up on COVID, they are having to start from scratch with their national plan to deal with the disease.  It’s as if they are dealing with the first case detected coming from China rather than the 400,000 victims who have already died.   

Biden looked energized and spry on Wednesday as he and the First Lady strode down Pennsylvania Avenue greeting the sparse crowd that had been allowed to witness the abbreviated inaugural parade.  He jogged over to greet weatherman Al Roker when he spied him across the street.  He was smiling and waving, looking like he was having the time of his life.

Today the press was ushered into record the president signing another few executive orders.  When he finished and stood up to walk to the podium, he looked like a man who had been in office for a year rather than a few days. He’s having to act fast, be comprehensive, and not let anything escape his attention because we haven’t had a president for the last four years.  We’ve had Donald Trump.