I assume you are referring to the "There is no federal solution to covid" quote. But it was in the context of talking to state governors and Biden saying a federal plan wasn't being forced on them -- that the primary work is done at the state level and the federal level is there to support it.

https://api.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/05/save-ameri...

Apparently in October 2020 Joe Biden believed that there was a federal solution to COVID. What has changed since then?

"We're eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn't have a plan to get this virus under control.

I do."

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1316894374500962305

I can't speak for him, and obviously tweets are short enough they can't contain it either. But apparently the plan was (a) to use federal funds and manpower to get vaccines spread as widely as possible. There was an early goals of 100M doses in the first 100 days, which was met, and another goal was set and met [1]. Another factor was sending the message: this isn't a "Democrat hoax", that it is real, is killing people, the vaccines are safe and certainly much safer than getting covid. I say that has been accomplished.

On the other hand, there is a large contingent of people and talking heads who have tried their hardest to spread fear and misinformation. We are still at something like 60% inoculated, and many doses of the vaccine ended up going bad or were shipped overseas because not enough people trust the vaccine.

Third, there is no way to prevent novel variants from causing new problems, other than getting the old variants under control to reduce the vast pool of variant breeders.

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/56901183

[EDIT] Also, your terse "he claimed there was a federal solution" is also subject to debate. He said he had a plan, but that doesn't mean the plan was a federal-only solution.

So what you're saying is that Biden's plan was essentially the same as Trump's plan, which also focused on using federal funds and manpower to produce and distribute vaccines as widely and rapidly as possible.

I don't want to turn this into a political debate, but I'll respond to you question. Trump repeatedly downplayed the severity of the virus, called it a "Democrat hoax", argued against many of the masking and distancing mandates that large cities had put in place, claimed that Fauci is incompetent and shouldn't be listened to, etc.

So, no, they are not the same plan. There is a reason why counties that went red have lower vaccination rates and more severe covid-related problems.

Donald Trump never called the virus a "Democrat hoax". There's plenty of room to criticize his handling of the pandemic (much of it was totally incompetent) but at least get your facts right instead of lying.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/oct/08/ask-politifac...

This part:

> But apparently the plan was (a) to use federal funds and manpower to get vaccines spread as widely as possible. There was an early goals of 100M doses in the first 100 days, which was met

Trump's Operation Warp Speed got the vaccines out with federal funding, and deployment under the Trump administration had reached 1.6 million per day before he was out of office - higher than Biden's original goal. That was why they had to increase the goal afterwards.

You might make some valid points, but it's really hard to see them when you don't cite sources, and when you deliberately use inflammatory language like "cronies" - and that's against the spirit of HN anyway.

I’m no fan of Biden but let’s be clear that this transcends administrations. Trump put Fauci on TV every day, Trump granted billions to big pharma. Just like Biden takes the fall for dumb wars started by Bush and Obama, he’ll take the fall for Trumps dumb fight against COVID.

The problem is that we have institutions like the Fed and the CDC and WHO that have been proven completely incompetent when power is deferred to them. They panicked and now we pay the price.

>the Fed and the CDC and WHO that have been proven completely incompetent when power is deferred to them.

I'm curious what criteria you used to make that assessment? Also, I don't know what you mean by "power" being deferred to them. What extra power was given?