This means that there is only one person who can take immediate action that could save thousands of lives. A person who could help restore America’s economic activity and get the nation back to normal faster. A person who, by acting immediately, could potentially prevent millions more from developing a completely preventable disease and at risk of damage to health that will last for the rest of their lives … if not too busy rushing to and attending weddings Shrimp to eat buffet.
Trump received the COVID-19 vaccine shortly after it became available and received a second dose sometime in January. That “someday” is because Trump didn’t do this on TV. He didn’t stand behind a podium talking about the benefits of the vaccine and letting the nation watch him. He did it in secret. It wasn’t until early March that a White House official admitted that Trump had been vaccinated. And it wasn’t until a Fox interview on March 16 that Trump confessed he had received the vaccine and gave him quick endorsement by saying, “I would recommend it and I would recommend it to a lot of people who don’t. “I don’t want to get it and a lot of these people honestly voted for me. “
That phone statement marks the beginning and the end of Trump’s vaccination praise aside from all the times he has claimed everyone should thank him for his availability.
At this point, it may be worth noting that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine that Trump received was actually made in a matter of hours on a Saturday morning by the BioNTech co-founder. Ugur Sahin Working in a laboratory in Mainz, Germany, January 25, 2020. Researchers from Moderna sequenced their vaccine on the same day. Both moved immediately as soon as Chinese researchers provided the world with the full sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
That means both vaccines were already made and tested for a full month before Trump gave his infamous vaccine “You have 15 people, and the 15 will be near zero in a matter of days.” Speech on February 26th. When Operation Warp Speed was announced three months later, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine (which had not received a dollar from the government for development) was already in Phase 1 human trials. The two largest recipients of Operation Warp Speed funds, Sanofi-GlaxoSmithKline and Novavax, are yet to provide a single dose of vaccine.
The credit Trump deserves for the vaccine is absolutely minimal – and it certainly doesn’t outweigh the 400,000 unnecessary deaths researchers have calculated and is entirely due to how he deliberately downplayed the pandemic threat.
But sure, give Trump all kinds of credit … when he announces a press conference, goes on national television, and actively encourages his supporters to go out and call for the COVID-19 vaccine right away. If that’s what it takes to get America across the line, we can give a special orange lollypop to any Republican who gets a shot. You can even call it “Trump Vaccine” if you like, and we’ll all go out of our way not to giggle.
A promise from Trump that he will stand under the light and talk about the vaccine is possibly the only thing he could say that would pull the cameras of all the major broadcasters into his colorful swamp castle for a live performance. Sure, it would be a distraction from his busy schedule to recapitulate his lies about the 2020 elections in front of an ad hoc audience of ten. But it seems like he’ll find the time.
It’s very likely that even if Trump went on camera and explained how he got the vaccine, Melania got the vaccine, and Ivanka got the vaccine, and it was all perfectly safe and absolutely patriotic, etc., etc., that a large serving his alleged followers would simply come up with even more conspiracy theories to cover why they weren’t vaccinated. That wasn’t really Trump on TV. He gave them a secret hand gesture, “It’s the opposite day”. Did you notice his tie being encrypted with a message explaining that the vaccine was made in China from conservative tears?
But if Trump tried, he might move half of those who make up his base. Maybe a third. And that could mean the difference between COVID-19, which used to be a threat to the nation, and COVID-19, the endemic disease that just never goes away.
It would by no means make up for the damage he did, but it would at least be a tiny demonstration of decency and concern for others. That’s a really good indicator that this will never happen.
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