Another week, another COVID-19 vaccine.
President Trump is accumulating virus vaccines in China almost as quickly as the Middle East peace accords.
Just four days after Trump brokered a December 10 rapprochement between Israel and Morocco – the fourth Trump-inspired olive branch between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors in four months – Pfizer introduced its immunization against COVID-19.
On December 14, in the Queens neighborhood of New York, an intensive care nurse named Sandra Lindsay became the first American to receive the Pfizer vaccine as part of her public launch.
USA ACHIEVES MORE THAN 1 MILLION ADMINISTRATED VACCINES
Pfizer’s shot went into Lindsay’s left arm exactly nine months and a day after President Trump declared the national emergency of COVID-19 on March 13. On Monday, the Americans started getting Moderna’s vaccine, a week after Pfizer’s.
This is revolutionary. Vaccines typically take 10 to 15 years to produce. Anti-mumps inoculation was the previous record breaking. It took four years to go from the notion to the needle.
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Operation Warp Speed (OWS), Trump’s immunological Manhattan Project, deserves its name. Regardless, with one major exception, Trump’s critics denied him credit for this impressive achievement. In fact, his comments traced a bizarre trajectory:
First, Trump’s enemies begged for a vaccine.
- New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo said on April 13, “I don’t think the final resolution will come until you have a vaccine.”
- “We cannot go back to normal until there is a vaccine for the new coronavirus,” said Chris Hayes of MSNBC on April 28.
- Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said on May 20 that he wants his economy to return to normal, but “I really don’t think this can happen entirely, 100 percent, until we have a fail-safe vaccine.”
Second, as in Gershwin’s music, they all laughed when Trump promised to do exactly what they wanted, and quickly.
- “It’s another POTUS day in Wonderland,” sneered Irwin Redlener, MD. He assured MSNBC on May 15, “It is impossible to do this by the end of the year.”
- “You can’t convince yourself to get a vaccine,” said Ali Velshi of MSNBC that night. “The quickest a vaccine has ever been produced from start to finish is five years.”
- “Trump’s observations on vaccines have no basis in reality, “MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin announced on September 16.
- “This is a promise from the president, based not on scientific facts,” pointed out Jake Tapper of CNN on September 18. “This is misinformation based, it seems obvious, on your desire to be re-elected.”
- OWS “lacks a solid leadership, global vision or strategy to secure the funding needed to fulfill this mission,” argues Joe Biden’s campaign website.
Third, Trump’s executioners now pretend that he had nothing to do with keeping his promise.
- “I just want to check the facts quickly to remind everyone that the companies that are producing these vaccines themselves were not involved in Operation Warp Speed,” said MSNBC’s Joy Reid on November 17. Is not true. In fact, OWS funds and deregulation have boosted Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
- While Sandra Lindsay was getting the first vaccine from Pfizer, CNN broadcast Governor Cuomo watching live, via Albany satellite, as if he were the father of the OWS. CNN.com’s history on this important occasion makes no mention of Trump or OWS.
- “Joe Biden, committed to ending the virus,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is a total game changer: a new president and a vaccine.” So, did Biden do that?
- Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., cited several “beacons of hope” on Monday. “Um, many Americans will soon have the vaccine,” said Schumer. “Two, Joe Biden will become president. He has the experience and empathy to deal with the COVID crisis and will replace a man who has shown no ability or even interest in doing so.” Schumer, of course, ignored the ability and interest of President Trump who took these vaccines to hospitals, nursing homes and, soon, pharmacies.
However, on Monday, Biden did the right thing. Moments after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, he said: “The government deserves some credit for making it take off with Operation Warp Speed.”
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So, what did Biden see that other Democrats lost? What did President Trump do to put these vaccines in American deltoids?
- The president had the imagination, optimism and courage to imagine a vaccine against China’s virus before 2021.
- President Trump launched the OWS on May 15 and recruited pharmaceutical companies for this public-private partnership. He then challenged, pressed and embarrassed them until they delivered. He also committed about $ 18 billion to this initiative.
- President Trump led the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies like a jockey. He hit his ribs with a whip as they jumped over bureaucracy, delays and excessive institutional caution.
- The president then bought in advance the production of several pharmaceutical companies, thus limiting their financial risks, even if their vaccine candidates failed. ‘
- In an unprecedented innovation, Trump instructed drug makers to produce millions of doses, simultaneously with clinical trials. Therefore, 24 hours after FDA approval, the trucks began to empty the inoculation-filled deposits.
- Instead of tearful academics, the president has appointed top Pentagon executives to manage the process. Trump’s uniformed officers hunted a COVID-19 vaccine like an elusive submarine. This discipline maximized and minimized patience for hurt feelings. Paul Crespo of the American Defense News explained: “The military has contributed to the critical logistical aspects of this huge undertaking.”
- Trump constantly applauded and publicly thanked those involved in this effort, often on camera.
Hate Trump, Inc. often calls the president “a bully”. Despite his praise for the OWS team, it is not clear whether Trump has also intimidated the medical researchers, pharmaceutical executives and military logistics who maintained this effort. However, these organizations and individuals were probably motivated by Trump’s hard and practical style, “Daddy doesn’t get confused.”
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Trump’s enemies crave an adorable, cuddly Mr. Rogers type in the Oval Office. The “national grandpa” Joe Biden could be that man.
But if Operation Warp Speed had been led by a nice guy in a wool coat, the vaccines that now enter the Americans’ arms would still be injected into mice.
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