More than anything during this pandemic Donald Trump has proved himself wholly devoid of what most of us expect as normal human decency. From lying about the threat of the virus itself, to completely ignoring the toll of Americans sickened or killed, to pushing for the reopening of businesses and schools, to advocating reducing the number of COVID-19 tests to improve his own poll numbers, Trump has made it quite clear that Americans’ actual well-being has never even crossed his mind in the last six months, except how it impacts his own re-election. Fundamentally, at his core, he’s inhuman in a very real sense of the word, with no regard for anyone but himself.
And on top of these traits, he lies reflexively and constantly, without any thought of the consequences of those lies, because that is what he’s gotten away with all his adult life.
So the idea that his administration, whose entire modus operandi during this public health catastrophe is rooted in cold disregard for Americans’ lives, would conspire to hawk a rushed, half-baked coronavirus vaccine in a hail-mary attempt to salvage his re-election prospects (which for Trump translates into an additional four years outside a federal prison) is not only plausible, it’s to be expected. It’s just business as usual from someone who was forced to pay out millions to innocent people duped by his phony University scam, someone who would habitually stiff people who work for him. In his mindset, it’s not just our soldiers who are the “suckers” and “losers”-- it’s all of us.
The prospect of Americans lined up like sheep to “take a needle” peddled by a fraud like Donald Trump may quite possibly be the most revolting image this administration has managed to conjure up (with the possible exception of his tear-gas enabled Bible photo-op). While most medical experts have already recoiled in horror at the idea of a vaccine strangely timed to come out by November 3rd, a good number of credulous Trump supporters would doubtlessly gladly bare their arms, blissfully confident in the Dear Leader’s good intentions.
Sen. Kamala Harris is having none of it, and today, as the voice of the Democratic Party this fall, she thankfully pre-empted the entire discussion for the rest of us. In short, and speaking for most of us with two brain cells to rub together: If Trump is the ‘’reliable source,” no thanks.
As reported by Zoe Richards, writing for TalkingPointsMemo:
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said she “would not trust” President Donald Trump’s word on the safety of any potential coronavirus vaccine.
“I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about,” Harris said in the clip of a CNN interview with Dana Bash released Saturday. “I will not take his word for it.”
This administration has already corrupted the Centers for Disease Control through political pressure and there is every reason to believe the FDA is similarly compromised, particularly . At this point in time, nothing emanating from this administration or any or its agencies is to be trusted, least of all a COVID-19 vaccine miraculously appearing on Halloween.
Senator Harris simply stated the obvious:
Harris predicted when asked if she thought that public health experts would get the last word on the efficacy of a vaccine that scientists would be “muzzled.”
“If past is prologue that they will not, they’ll be muzzled, they’ll be suppressed, they will be sidelined,” Harris said. She told Bash that the President was grasping in the remaining days leading up to the election “to get whatever he can to pretend he has been a leader on this issue when he is not.”
The reality is that we now have a government that has proved itself so untrustworthy, so divorced from reality, and so corrupted by Donald Trump, it can’t be relied on to act in Americans’ interest, even in the face of the worst public health catastrophe in over a century.
That’s where we are right now.