White House walks back false claim that there was ‘no vaccine available’ under Trump administration

The Biden administration on Friday hastily walked back a false claim that the COVID-19 vaccine was not available under the Trump administration, admitting that the shot was indeed released prior to Biden’s taking office.

In an initial tweet on Friday, the Biden administration claimed that “when President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available.”

After multiple critics pointed out that the vaccine was released prior to Biden’s taking office—with Biden himself receiving the shot before taking the oath—the White House issued a clarification admitting its mistake. 

“We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021,” the account wrote. “We should have said that they were not widely available.” 

“Vaccines became available shortly before the President came into office,” the account continued. “Since then, he’s responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people.”