The problems with supply chains did not just start when President Biden took office

Supply-chain disruptions across the country are driving up prices and leading to a growing shortage of goods. In fact, bottlenecks of goods have caused record shortages of many products that American consumers are used to having readily available, from household goods to electronics to automobiles. The COVID-19 pandemic has essentially reduced the production of goods and services, and the supply-chain shortages now happening are the result of struggles to return to pre-pandemic levels. In response to the continued supply chain woes, Texas congressman Lance Gooden (R) tweeted, "The United States didn't have a supply chain crisis until Joe Biden became president." We find this statement false. Supply chain problems existed under the Trump Administration when the pandemic first began. In the United States and around the world, the pandemic caused grocery store shelves to remain empty for many, and the technology industry continued to face a growing shortage of semiconductors due to the pandemic and other environmental factors well before Biden took office on January 20, 2021.

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Professor Tinglong Dai response to the claim:

The statement is clearly false. During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. suffered one of the worst supply chain crises in modern history. Severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) had to life-and-death consequences and contributed to many unnecessary COVID-19 infections and deaths, especially among health care workers and nursing home residents. Aside from medical products, another supply chain crisis in 2020 led to widespread shortages of toilet paper, hand sanitizers, electronic products, meat, dairy, and eggs, among other goods. These shortages lasted for months and caused major disruptions to millions of U.S. households. Even as recent as January 2021, a lack of coordination at both the federal and state levels led to a COVID-19 vaccine supply chain crisis that left millions desperate for getting a vaccination whereas a large proportion of vaccines were sat in freezers unused. Finally, it is important to point out that the ongoing supply chain crisis has a great deal to do with the changes in consumption patterns dating back to 2020.