Biden Covid Team Derides Trump Plan While Borrowing Playbook

Biden inherited system already meeting target pace of shots
Biden to use DPA, like Trump, and order doses from old deals

People wait in line at a vaccination site at Lincoln Park in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 28.Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images

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By Josh Wingrove and Riley Griffin

January 29, 2021 at 7:00 AM UTC

Updated on

January 29, 2021 at 2:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

President Joe Biden and his top advisers have derided the Trump administration’s playbook for distributing coronavirus vaccines, but so far have made only modest changes to the plan that’s meeting their target pace of more than one million shots a day.

Biden has said vaccine distribution was in “worse shape than we anticipated.” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said a Trump administration plan “did not really exist.” Adviser Cedric Richmond said they “didn’t leave a plan.” Xavier Becerra, Biden’s choice for health secretary, said it was like taking over a plane in a nosedive.