HHS pick walks back Biden’s ‘nothing we can do’ on COVID-19 claim

Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Xavier Becerra is walking back President Biden’s comments that there is “nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic” in the coming months.

Speaking to CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Becerra made the remarks after being asked about the commander-in-chief’s remark on Friday.

“I believe President Biden made it very clear, the plane is in a nosedive, and we gotta pull it up. And you’re not going to do that overnight,” the HHS nominee said, adding, “But we’re gonna pull it up, we have to pull it up. Failure is not an option here, and so we will.”

Becerra went on to say the administration has “a rescue plan that should be followed by a recovery plan,” arguing that first the federal government must “rescue the people” and the US economy.

Asked if he believed the pandemic’s trajectory could be shifted under Biden, Becerra expressed confidence in his new boss.

“We can do better. We can not only control COVID but get us back to real normality. But it takes everybody. All hands on deck. We’ve got to make sure we’re coordinated. And we are talking to people.

“We can’t just tell the states, ‘Here’s some PPE, some masks, here’s some vaccines, now go do it.’ No, no. When we hand them over, we stay with them and provide resources to make it happen,” he continued.

Biden made his eyebrow-raising statement speaking to reporters while signing a series of executive actions Friday.

The orders covered a range of issues from raising pay for low-wage federal workers to increasing food assistance for needy families, something Biden was defending when he made the comment in question.

“If we fail to act, there will be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months as this pandemic rages on because there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months,” the 46th commander-in-chief said.