Verification of facts of Biden virus claims made during the visit to Michigan at the Pfizer plant

President Biden visited Pfizer’s Michigan plant in Portage on Friday, where he spoke to the nation about his administration’s efforts to increase coronavirus vaccinations in the United States.

During his first official visit to Michigan since he was elected president, Biden toured Pfizer’s facilities and learned first-hand how COVID-19 vaccines are stored and shipped before discussing new distribution strategies. .

While Biden’s statements on Friday were largely aspirational or congratulatory, there were a few things that needed to be verified.

Grant Herms, of Local 4, filed some of Biden’s claims through our trust index. See what we found below.

First, we’ll start with a statement Biden made about the administration’s effort to increase vaccine production in the U.S.

Announcements

Biden’s statement: “When we discovered that vaccine manufacturers were not given priority in examining and securing the supplies they needed, we solved this problem and got what they needed.”

We’re calling this one: be careful.

The Defense Production Act is generally used to get companies to change production for national interests. Although the Biden administration uses the DPA more specifically than the Trump administration, the Trump White House initially used it to encourage vaccine development at a time when the vaccine was far from prepared for production and instead resorted to ways to encourage pharmaceutical companies to work on the vaccine.

It is fair for Biden to claim that his DPAs helped speed up the supply chain, but his statement ignores some of the bases set by the previous president.

Below is a statement made by Biden about the number of vaccines given each day in the United States.

Announcements

Biden statement: “We are making an average of 1.7 million a day. We will soon reach 50 million and I am sure we will exceed the number “.

We also say this: be careful.

The information that Biden presents in this statement requires context.

Biden was referring to his commitment to administer 100 million U.S. gunfire during his first 100 days in office. The country surpassed 50 million shots around Valentine’s Day and 50 million Americans are expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of March, but these shots are being administered. with the pass of time, and do not take place in one day, as the president’s statement may seem to suggest.

Next, we examine a statement made by President Biden about the number of Americans who have gone hungry in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden statement: “24 million adults, 11 million children do not have enough food to eat. And unless you think I’m exaggerating, think of those scenes you’ve seen on TV with cars in line, which looked like miles. “

Announcements

We call this true.

Still, it’s important to keep in mind that specific numbers are hard to trace, and the president may be selling the problem.

President Biden appears to be using USDA numbers taken during the pandemic, but before the full scope of the pandemic. According to the non-profit publication Feeding America, Biden’s figures were just at the start of the pandemic, but are expected to get worse: more than 50 million hungry people, including 17 million children, by 2020.

When he spoke of the vaccine launch, President Biden called the Michigan grocery chain “Meijers.” We thought a lot about it and decided … we’ll just stay out of it.

---

During his first visit to Michigan since he was elected president, Joe Biden toured the Pfizer manufacturing center in Kalamazoo County on Friday, thanking all employees during their live statements for their efforts to help vaccinate Americans against coronavirus.

Announcements

Following his tour of Pfizer’s largest manufacturing center, heading to the country, President Biden thanked Pfizer employees for their role in producing hundreds of millions of doses of the much-needed coronavirus vaccine. Biden said the advancement of COVID-19 vaccines was a “miracle of science,” especially after health experts initially believed it could take six to eight years to develop a vaccine.

After criticizing the lack of a national vaccine strategy of the previous administration, Biden outlined his administration’s initiative to increase the production and distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, which he described as “the most difficult operational challenge that this nation has faced. “

President Biden says the average daily number of people vaccinated in the United States nearly doubled from the week before he took office to an average of about 1.7 million people receiving vaccines each day. With this new average, Biden says the nation is not only on track to surpass its 100 million shot commitment in its first 100 days in office, but hopes to surpass that number. Critics have previously argued that 100 million doses was an inadequate target to begin with and hoped that the rate of distribution would increase when possible.

Announcements

Read more about Biden’s visit and comments here.