Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump's Health Legacy: Unfulfilled Promises And 400,000 Covid Deaths
The Washington Post: Trump’s Administration Fell Far Short Of Its Own Vaccine Promises
As of Monday, just over 31 million coronavirus vaccine doses had been delivered nationwide. Fewer than half of those have been administered. This despite months of promises from Trump officials that the United States would distribute no fewer than 40 million coronavirus vaccine doses and administer doses to 20 million Americans by the end of December. The Trump administration did not even deliver 20 million vaccine doses until Jan. 7. (Rieger, 1/19)
AP: Trump's Exit: President Leaves Office With Legacy Of Chaos
Donald Trump will walk out of the White House and board Marine One for the last time as president Wednesday morning, leaving behind a legacy of chaos and tumult and a nation bitterly divided. Four years after standing on stage at his own inauguration and painting a dire picture of “American carnage,” Trump departs the office twice impeached, with millions more out of work and 400,000 dead from the coronavirus. Republicans under his watch lost the presidency and both chambers of Congress. He will be forever remembered for the final major act of his presidency: inciting an insurrection at the Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer, and horrified the nation. (Colvin, 1/20)
KHN: On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid Deaths
While millions wait for a lifesaving shot, the U.S. death count from covid-19 continues to soar upward with horrifying speed. On Tuesday, the last full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, the death toll reached 400,000 — a once-unthinkable number. More than 100,000 Americans have perished in the pandemic in just the past five weeks. In the U.S., someone now dies of covid every 26 seconds. And the disease is claiming more American lives each week than any other condition, ahead of heart disease and cancer, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. (Stone, 1/19)
AP: 'Shameful': US Virus Deaths Top 400K As Trump Leaves Office
As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control.” Now, in his final hours in office, after a year of presidential denials of reality and responsibility, the pandemic’s U.S. death toll has eclipsed 400,000. And the loss of lives is accelerating. “This is just one step on an ominous path of fatalities,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University and one of many public health experts who contend the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis led to thousands of avoidable deaths. (Geller and Har, 1/20)
And President Trump honors Operation Warp Speed members —
Fox 5 DC: Trump Issues Commendations To Operation Warp Speed Members, Including Fauci, Birx
On his last day in office, President Donald Trump issued commendations to a number people for their contributions to Operation Warp Speed, a White House effort to distribute 300 million doses of a viable COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021, which by Jan. 19 had not been met. A few names on the list of commendations stood out, particularly Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, both of whom were key members of the White House coronavirus task force in its early days, before having their public-facing roles diminished when the task force ceased providing regular briefings. (Park, 1/19)
The Washington Post: U.S. Surpasses 400,000 Deaths As Biden Invites The Country To Mourn Together
Covid-19 has now killed more than 400,000 Americans. The country reached that devastating milestone Tuesday, the eve of the first anniversary of the first confirmed U.S. case and the final full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, which historians say will be defined by his bungling of the public health crisis. ... Trump awarded presidential commendations on Tuesday to officials involved in Operation Warp Speed, which is overseeing vaccine distribution. Recipients included Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony S. Fauci and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. (Thebault and Beachum, 1/19)
