Fact Check: The White House Corrects Itself After False Claim About Vaccine

It was not the first time that the Biden administration made the claim.

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At 5:45 p.m. on Thursday, the official White House Twitter account published a tweet claiming that there was no vaccine when President Joe Biden came into office. 

 

The tweet has quickly gone viral, and has been liked close to 10,000 times and retweeted almost 5,000 times. But the claim is false. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “ This isn’t the first time Biden or his administration has made a similar claim.”

    This is so stupid.

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    Tmcke

    My recollection was that the vaccines - if available at all, were hardly mentioned at all before Biden was sworn in. Trump's team seemed to have no interest. But as soon as Biden was in office, the vaccine centers seemed to come out of nowhere. As a 70 years old, I was able to sign up soon and in March I received both my Pfizer shots. So it may be an inadvertence. Hardly worth a big concern.

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  3. Jeff

    Both Trump and Biden’s administrations have made misleading claims surrounding vaccines. They have all learned to play the game of taking credit for things government has less to do with is actually true.

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  4. M2-D2

    Yah... as a physician, I was fully vaccinated before Biden was inaugurated. But it's even more confusing how they can screw this up when Biden was fully vaccinated before he took office (?!) if he was vaccinated in January 2021 as the fact check states.

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    Michael Darwin

    I got my vaccine and my booster. Three shots. Didn't see Biden at any one of them. Can we please fact check him being responsible for my vaccine?

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  6. PCamp2

    You need a sharp , more awake editor.

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    Rob Braun

    Hey it sounds exactly like the thousands of hyperbolic exaggerations of the last administration-doesn't it? I guess one isn't too bad in comparison.

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  8. Roy Wiese

    As others noted, you got the years wrong. Never helpful but especially in this case that centers on key dates. Does anyone do copyediting any more?!

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  9. Ned Calderone

    And the vaccines they’re taking credit for are the same one Kamala Harris said she’d be hesitant to take during the 2020 campaign because she didn’t trust the Trump administration.

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      Olympus Mons

      She wouldn't take something TRUMP told people to take. The point was, she wasn't going to rely on Trump's word before she took something. After all, he was suggesting people inject bleach and worse, so not exactly a bizarre position to take.

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      1. Ned Calderone

        That’s a generous interpretation and is simply another indicator of how people just insist on viewing everything through a partisan lens. The entire federal health establishment touted vaccines regardless of administration. Do you really believe that underlying characteristics of the vaccines were going to change between September 2020 and November 2020 or January 2021?

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      Stephanie

      I wouldn't have taken it then either. Trump wanted to push it out before it was fully tested, so he could brag about it for Election Day.

      I wish I had a dollar for every time I read someone's making that exact same ridiculous remark about Kamala Harris.

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      1. Ned Calderone

        It’s hardly ridiculous. She stated it in a blatantly partisan manner. You’re incredibly naive if you think she would have said the same if a Democrat were in the WH.

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        1. B Phillips

          Duh it was partisan - Trump was acting like an ass, I wouldn't take something he barreled thru the development process either.

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          1. Ned Calderone

            I'm not going to defend Trump, but you and other commenters that seem to feel the need to dunk on the expedited effort are simply doing so because of your hatred of the bad orange man. The accelerated development of the vaccines saved lives and would have saved many more had so many on the right not adopted a head scratching hesitancy. But then again, I can imagine a reality where we'd have an equal number of deaths because those on the left would have adopted the same type of vaccine hesitancy had Biden lost the 2020 election

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      2. Diane Hansen

        You mean the very same vaccine Kamala scoffed at, and the same vaccine she and Biden, and the rest of us were inoculated with? Nothing changed……. Stephanie, when are you going to face the truth? You are a lib who doesn’t question, you believe whatever the Dem Party and the Dem media tell you to believe…..how sad 😞.

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          Stephanie

          This is the last time I'm going to say this: the vaccines were not fully tested, and they were not ready, at the time Trump was trying to push the manufacturer to make them available. They refused.

          At that point, many people--not just Kamala Harris--were not going to use any vaccine that had not been properly tested and received authorization from the FDA.

          Once it was ready, and approved, (and possibly it might not have been), no one had any problem with it.

          I have no idea what you're talking about: "Nothing changed." ??

          If you have an argument, make it. If all you know how to do is insult people who don't agree with you, go bother someone else.

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          1. Diane Hansen

            I hope that’s the last time you will spew that nonsense. Nothing changed between Trump and Biden, people were being inoculated while Trump was still president, and it was the same vaccine that continued once Biden was president….. You are a partisan Stephanie, and you’ve bought the Kamala, Dem lies. Does it never occur to you that your Dems play political games? They didn’t want Trump or Republicans to have any political wins at all for FOUR FLPPIN’ YEARS. It would be refreshing if you for once dealt with the truth..

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    Mark Hunter

    This is another case of the Biden admin (and it isn't alone in this) stepping on their own message. His administration did an admirable job in getting the vaccines out and available – that is worth bragging about. But, their very nature seems to be gaslight and shade the truth. It destroys their credibility.

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      Stephanie

      Explain about the gaslighting here? Who's gaslighting whom?

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      1. Avatar photo
        JohnM.

        "When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available."
        "President Biden told the American public his “Build Back Better” agenda would cost exactly $0"
        "President Biden blames the massive price spike of gas on Russia invading Ukraine."
        I could go on, but I think you get my point.

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          Stephanie

          So you'll see me the vaccine statement & raise me the BBB (I think it was going to balance out, or nearly) & Putin's Ukraine war (you're saying it didn't have any effect?).

          I dunno about those last 2.

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            JohnM.

            Of course I didn't say that it didn't have an effect. But gas prices were rising well before the Ukraine invasion.

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