“[paraphrase] Within 24 hours of the FDA's emergency authorization, tens of millions of doses will be distributed.”
· Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit at the White House
· ×2
Deadline Dec 9, 2020 · 5 years, 9 months overdue
Within 24 hours of Pfizer's December 11, 2020 authorization the government began releasing 6.4 million doses in two stages, not tens of millions. Pfizer had already cut its 2020 manufacturing projection from 100 million to 50 million doses. About 2.8 million people had been vaccinated in the US by December 31, 2020, against a stated goal of 20 million.
“[paraphrase] We'll have a vaccine before a very special date — I'm talking about November 3rd.”
· White House press conference, Labor Day
· ×10
No vaccine was authorized before the election. Pfizer announced interim efficacy results on November 9, 2020, six days after Election Day. The FDA granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on December 11, 2020 and to Moderna's on December 18, 2020.
“We're going to be there very soon... [capacity] will increase by much more than that in the very near future.”
· Oval Office remarks
Deadline May 12, 2020 · 6 years, 4 months overdue
Hours earlier testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir had said there was 'absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet' the US could run 5 million tests a day. Trump reversed within a day, denying he had said it and blaming a 'media trap.' The single-day peak at that point was 314,182 tests, and the US never reached 5 million tests a day.
“I would love to have it open by Easter... You'll have packed churches all over our country. I think it'll be a beautiful time.”
· Fox News virtual town hall from the White House Rose Garden
· ×2
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx pushed back hard. Five days later, on March 29, 2020, Trump abandoned the Easter target and extended social distancing guidelines to April 30. Easter Sunday 2020 fell in one of the deadliest stretches of the first wave and churches held services online or in parking lots.
“We're going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.”
· White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing
· ×4
Deadline Mar 20, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn corrected Trump at the same briefing, saying more study was needed. The FDA issued a narrow emergency use authorization on March 28, 2020 for stockpiled product in certain hospitalized patients, then revoked it on June 15, 2020 after trials showed no benefit and possible cardiac harm. The promotion caused shortages for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients.
“[paraphrase] Fifteen days of avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people, discretionary travel, bars, restaurants and food courts.”
· White House briefing, issued as federal guidance
· ×2
On March 29, 2020, with the fifteen days about to expire and after pushing to reopen by Easter, Trump extended the guidelines by another 30 days to April 30 — NPR's headline was 'How 15 Days Became 45.' The guidelines then lapsed into a phased 'Opening Up America Again' framework. The phrase became shorthand for a deadline that never ends.
“Google is helping to develop a website. It's going to be very quickly done... Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They've made tremendous progress.”
· Rose Garden national emergency declaration
Deadline Mar 16, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
Google publicly corrected the record the same day. The project belonged to Alphabet's Verily, not Google, and launched March 15-16, 2020 as a pilot limited to two San Francisco Bay Area counties, with appointment slots filling almost immediately. Verily ultimately helped about 1.6 million people get tested in 2020 — under 1% of all US tests that year.
“We'll have 1.4 million tests on board next week and 5 million within a month.”
· Rose Garden national emergency declaration
· ×2
Deadline Mar 20, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
Roughly 894,000 tests in total had been run nationwide by March 29-30, 2020, well behind the promised weekly volumes. Asked about the gap between tests 'distributed' and tests actually performed, Trump replied, 'I cannot explain the gap.'
“Over a million tests have been distributed... Before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed.”
· White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing (statement by Vice President Mike Pence)
Deadline Mar 16, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
By March 29-30, 2020 roughly 894,000 tests had actually been performed nationwide according to testing coordinator Adm. Brett Giroir — a small fraction of the millions described. In late April Pence said the public had 'misunderstood' him and that he had meant tests available rather than tests completed.
“Anybody that wants a test can get a test. That's what the bottom line is.”
· Remarks to reporters during a tour of the CDC, Atlanta
· ×2
Deadline Mar 7, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
PolitiFact rated the claim Pants on Fire. Under CDC criteria providers, not patients, decided who was tested, and on March 9, 2020 the Association of Public Health Laboratories said demand far exceeded supply. Texas's largest public health lab could run 26 tests a day. Testing on demand did not exist for months.
“It's going to disappear. One day — it's like a miracle — it will disappear.”
· White House meeting with African American leaders
· ×22
Deadline Mar 12, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
Rolling Stone counted at least 22 separate occasions on which Trump predicted the virus would simply go away, including earlier claims that heat would kill it 'in April.' The US passed 100,000 deaths by late May 2020 and roughly 400,000 by the time he left office in January 2021.
“And again, when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done.”
· White House press conference with the Coronavirus Task Force
Deadline Feb 28, 2020 · 6 years, 6 months overdue
Cases did not fall to zero. The first US community-transmission case was confirmed the same day and the first reported US death came on February 29, 2020. By late March the US had the most confirmed cases in the world, and by the first anniversary of the remark the American death toll had passed 500,000.