Check this out. It's only a minute long:
'You’re playing right into their hands' when you doubt the vaccine, President Trump says. pic.twitter.com/xJc7JTL0cR
— No Spin News (@NoSpinNews) December 20, 2021
This is just jaw dropping. Finally, a year after vaccines became available, Donald Trump is telling his fans that he was the one responsible for getting them out so fast and they've saved "tens of millions of lives." Conservatives should embrace vaccines!
You're playing right into their hands when you're sort of like, "oh the vaccine"....We saved tens of millions of lives. Take credit. Don't let them take that away from you.
"Them" is liberals, in case you're wondering. And that's fine. Trump could pretend that he uncovered a plot by Hunter Biden to wreck the vaccine supply if that's what it takes to get conservatives on board.
Can you imagine if Trump had taken this position from the start? We'd probably be 90% vaxed by now. Hell, Republicans might have a higher vaccination rate than Democrats.
Better late than never, I suppose. I wonder how this is going to go over with the faithful?
Mind boggling, besides the horrendous lies, is the fact that these two idiots have gotten all three shots!!!! WTH!
They're not nearly as idiotic as their followers.
Given they were booed about having gotten their boosters… either their supporters are even bigger whackadoodles or shills for WHO.
So far, we know it's NOT going over well; how refreshing that Team trump/hannity is being booed by their paying audience.
Must be frustrating, trying to belatedly claim credit for the vaccine & actually get your base to use it after discouraging all manner of public-health measures for two years.
But hey, Sarah Palin is going to get jabbed - over her dead body.
I am sure she's had more than a few Pfizer-powered jabs...
We know she's not 100% honest, but she's also not 100% smart, either.
+1 manage a trois with Kid Rock & Ted Nugent in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House, 2019
Guess that was a foursome then, since Abe was there.
And his ghost shot himself, that's why we're in this mess now. No more Lincoln ghost advisor. Thanks, Republicans, you're too disgusting for the dead.
"Sarah Palin is going to get jabbed - over her dead body"
If that's all it takes, I'm good with that. Go for it, girl.
I’d settle for that.
Per the reports, he was booed when he acknowledging getting the booster. So I think we know how it’s going.
Probably antifa moles in the crowd.
Obviously.
Once the Proud Bois allied with the Black Hammer that was inevitable.
"Better late than never, I suppose. I wonder how this is going to go over with the faithful?"
That's the crucial point. Trump hasn't led the MAGA march, he's merely exploited it. He's followed in the footsteps of Goldwater, Buchanan and Gingrich with more cynicism, depravity, cunning and success.
Say what you will about Buchanan, but he had a philosophy he could argue for. Not my cup of tea, but he wasn't some deranged huckster like Trump or Gingrich.
Yeah, Buchanan was a straight-ahead fascist. As Molly Ivins said about his 1992 Republican Convention speech: “It probably sounded better in the original German.”.
Not sure how much on the up and up your statement is, but Buchanan is a Hitler apologist. I don’t mean that he says racist things and people call him a Nazi. I mean he repeatedly has said that Hitler had no choice but to start a war because of what Britain and France were doing. You used to be able to find his various writings online - I assume you still can. I don’t consider being a Hitler apologist as having a philosophy.
A nut job who can speak in sentences.
That is nothing new. But according to anti-conservative euro supremacists, the Nazis themselves were frauds. Hitler was a quarter Ashkenazi and basically put into power by the Rothschild dynasty........and notice Himmler's son chaired Permindex after the War with a Rothschild member. These are the conspiracy theories people should be looking into. Gore Vidal also agreed with this view. Western Civilization was in crisis. They needed a patsy.
This is the second antisemetic thing I've seen you post in two days. Why is this poster being tolerated here? Kevin, do you read these things?
I asked yesterday to have this rude individual banned. This last one might be his most wack-a-doodle thus far
He posts this type of crap on a regular basis. Unfortunately Kevin doesn't do any kind of moderation no matter how abhorrent the content of the comment or the frequency of these comments, so we've had to put up with him for a while now.
Buchanan relished a fight, fair or otherwise. This included physical violence when he was young. This made him a violent man, but not a bully like Trump. Trump picks fights with those who can't effectively fight back and asks others to carry out violence on his behalf.
Trump isn't responsible for the high level of white ethnonationalism: that is indeed an existing dynamic he tapped into it. But the utterly crazy level of unhinged anti-vax sentiment on the right wouldn't have materialized had Trump forcefully argued for jabs from the getgo. On this Kevin is right. Trump could've made a real difference. (Although his doing so is a quite unimaginable circumstance in today's America, because he'd be arguing for something that would help a country being led by a Democratic president).
No, if he had pushed his “warp speed” vaccine from the start he’d have been enjoying his second term right now, frequently tweeting how he brilliantly made America great by protecting us against the Chinese death.
He might but only if he had also pushed sound public health measures. In the environment of the time with Trump’s craziness and openly manipulating data, leaning on public health officials, a willingness to allow widespread death and suffering, and a general refusal to act against either the virus or the antivaxers, it’s hard to see the vaccines being accepted by non-MAGA people while Trump was in office.
if Trump, their God-Emperor, had pushed vaccines from the very beginning, and was genuinely emphatic, things might have turned out differently.
The problem is, by the time the vaccines were released via EUA in December of 2020, Trump knew he had lost the election, and that from there on in getting the country vaxxed would improve conditions under a Democratic administration (indeed, the very man who beat him). So he dithered. And gave one or two milquetoast endorsements of the vaccines. And that was about it.
And so very quickly the general antipathy on the MAGA right toward any science-based strategies to fight the pandemic began to encompass opposition to mass vaccination (which was now, of course, being pushed by a Democratic administration).
And so the MAGA/hard-right created yet another monster they can't control. And so here we are.
But if, from the getgo, Trump had very loudly and publicly combined taking full credit for the vaccines (the Trump Vaccine to fight the China Virus!) with the need to actually get jabbed —perhaps also pairing this position with opposition to mask requirements ("NO MASKS FOR THE TRUMP-VAXXED!"), I think the country might now enjoy substantially higher vaccination rates. Remember, Fox News takes their cues from Trump, and they would've fallen in line, and so millions of viewers would be given daily doses of pro-vaccine messaging. This is precisely the opposite of what has occurred in the universe we actually live in (side note: for my money Rupert Murdoch has as much blood on his hands as Donald Trump).
(But sure: the specter of Trump taking actions that would benefit the guy who beat him is pretty much unfathomable. One might as well envision wolves becoming vegetarians).
As you say, if Trump had been a better human being things might have been different.
If Trump had been a better human being, he never would have run for president.
Nope. Zionism, not ethnonationalism con. You still don't get it
None of us get it, Shootie.
You left out Joe McCarthy. And yes, he seems surprised that the parade is marching along without him. So am I, for that matter. I'd just assumed he could tell his minions "A" one day and "not A" the next, and they'd turn on a dime and agree. Maybe not!
You're saying we live in the world of Null-A
Charles Lindbergh & Fr. Coughlin feel left out.
Kennedy boys and McCarthy were friends despite Joey being a fag.
Goldwater didn't lead anthing. He represented the market intellectuals off the western Republican establishment. If JFK had lived and there had been no 1964 civil rights bill, Rockefeller would have been the nominee
Who can forget Trump on January 6: " We are going to walk down to the capital . . . and I'll be with you"? Don't know which is more execrable, that he ordered a march on the capital to overturn the election, or that his minions were be stupid enough to believe he would be there with them.
No, he wanted protesters to push Pence into delaying certification to continue the grift.
Yes, probably. But also probably if Pence wouldn’t play ball, I think he intended to have him wacked. I can’t get the scene of Pence refusing to get in the car with Secret Service people he thought belonged to Trump. Straight out of The Godfather.
I wonder whether Biden has the good sense to follow up on Pence’s worries to see if there’s a group of MAGA killers inside the Secret Service and get rid of them.
I do wonder if Trump pushed the vax (and won a second term) how the numbers would look. I don't think as many on the left would be as vax resistant as the right currently is, but the numbers would absolutely be different.
In this hypothetical, would the data on vax safety and efficacy be open and transparent as it is now? Or would Trump and his minions be suppressing any data that doesn't go their way and threatening government scientists who don't echo their line? Because in the latter case, which we all know is how it would go down, I would absolutely not be getting a Trump vaccine.
The Trump Regime would be forcing vaccinations at gunpoint.
dart guns
At the end of the day it was a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine; I would take it, Trump in power or not.
I have given this some thought and, speaking for myself only, I believe that I would’ve waited for the vaccines to be approved in Europe before taking them. As it was, I signed up for the first appointment that was available to me.
He’s been trying to have it both ways for a while. He gets credit for the vaccine and it’s saved millions of lives/ the vaccine is a fraud and just the deep state trying to control you. His ego won’t let him ride the tide and run to the front of his “followers” to “lead” them. He wants to be able to say he and only he could have mustered the forces to beat the virus.
This looks like a great opportunity for Republicans who aspire to the presidency to out-Trump Trump. It will be interesting to see if they jump on it. It will also be interesting to see how fast he walks that comment back.
"No mandate!" Do it because I'm telling you to, not because they're telling to.
…. Oops. You know what I mean.
Nooooo! This was our chance to wipe out the republicans! The vaccine has secret metals which make you magnetic! The micro chips will give you a heart attack! You will get arthritis a year from your first dose and it will make dependent on government for welfare and Medicaid! The lipids will make you cholesterol levels go crazy and clog your arteries! The PEG will cause you to go into shock! The lipid nano particles will give you a stroke!
The mRNA will make you trans! Don’t get the vaccine! It doesn’t work anyway. Even lefty senators Warren and Booker got sick. Why bother?
You left out the graphene.
The chips took over my arm, and it tried to choke me!!!
Maybe I shouldn't fall asleep watch Peter Seller's movies....
No spoilers for Spiderman: No Way Home.
Per this WaPo piece, it probably won't do any good... https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/20/trump-cant-make-trumpists-embrace-vaccines/
I believe it is totally irrelevant if Trump gets booed for promoting being vaccinated.
Those folk are going to vote for him regardless.
After all, you might disagree with someone on specific points of dogma, but that doesn't mean you lose your faith.
Kind of like “Christians” not turning the other cheek, right?
67% of adults are vaccinated in non too 50 (sub)urban areas. We absolutely would not be at 90% vaccinated. Naturopathic Dems in the burbs say no to vaccine. Quiet as they are. Lagging colored vaccination rates. Admit it. 85% is peak vaccine potential.
Trump to his credit, realizes vaccines unlike lockdowns, has broad public support.
96% of Democrats have had at least one shot, compared to 54% of Republicans. (Monmouth University December poll.)
So, you’re completely wrong. Quelle surprise.
No, he wanted protesters to push Pence into delaying certification to continue the grift. After the counter protesters didn't show up......You have seen the transcript
Things like this won’t even register to MAGA people. I've heard a number of interviews over the past year where MAGA people are asked why they won’t get vaccinated when even Trump has. They first claim that they had no idea that Trump was vaccinated (even though this has been widely reported many times). Then they move on to their usual BS reason. No attempt is made to justify why doing the opposite of Trump is how you support him.
As crazy as this is, I see something similar here and elsewhere on the internet. Obama has repeatedly, both during his Presidency and after, talked about how the left immediately labels racist anyone who disagrees with anything they say. He has specifically called out the “woke” as making a terrible mistake and we need to reach out to other groups of people - the white working class or rural people or almost anyone - and engage with them.
When other people on the left say the same thing - we need to reach out to other groups - they are shouted down. And we have the example at this very blog. Kevin has repeatedly said this and there are always people who immediately comment that Kevin wants us to ally with racists and we all know what that means about Kevin.
If you were at tell these commentators that Obama has over and over and over again said the same thing, they will tell you that they have never heard him say that. (it is really easy to find out he repeatedly said that) And then move on to their usual BS explanation that only racist people would ever say something like that. No attempt is made to justify why Obama would say the same things Kevin and the other “bad” people say. I see things like this a lot.
Of course, there are some important differences. The crazy conspiracies are repeated by a large percentage of Republicans. Meanwhile, most Democrats agree with what Obama and Kevin and many others have said. Very few Dem elected officials subscribe to the extremist position. It is just a very loud minority that tar the entire party.
I just felt like writing down that I’ve seen this before.
Gilgit is absolutely correct here.
Kevin says this video is jaw dropping and wonders how things could be better if trump had said this from the start .
But this is what trump has been saying from the start. This video is fully consistent with trumps past statements. He has always encouraged people to get vaccinated but not supported it being mandated, while of course trying to take all the credit for himself. And he really does deserve a good share of the credit here. Would just look a lot better for him to just take the credit he deserves and not exaggerate. Biden has the same fault - exaggerating when not even needed .
It is just that Kevin , along with many, do not know this . Either because they are not paying much attention to news on this, they do not want to hear it as it goes against what they want to believe, or the media is just not reporting it. Or some combination of the three.
And consider the last point. I ask you to just look at the polifact report on this dealing with Rachel Maddow and ny times reporting where they claimed this and rated false. At least Maddow did sort of correct the record by airing ONE tweet where trump supported vaccination that politifact cited , but then made it out that this was the only time , which is simply not true .
A few minutes of research would show anyone that trump had always encouraged getting vaccinated, with that great vaccine that only he could have gotten developed.
So, if the left leaning media is so concerned about trump supporters getting vaccinated and think they will just do whatever trump says, you think they would instead do their best to play up any trump statement supporting vaccination, and even praise trump for doing so. But instead they are falsely trying to mislead that trump does not support vaccination, which should be exactly what they should not do if they really cared about encouraging vaccination.
Kevin says this video is jaw dropping and wonders how things could be better if trump had said this from the start .But this is what trump has been saying from the start. This video is fully consistent with trumps past statements. He has always encouraged people to get vaccinated but not supported it being mandated
That's bullshit. In the first place, opposition to mandates is pretty much identical to opposition to mass vaccinations. That's how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. couches his anti-vax nuttery, too. A person in 2021 cannot plausibly oppose vaccine mandates while simultaneously "encouraging" people to get vaccinated.
But secondly, Trump has barely mentioned the importance of getting vaccinated at all. Yes, one or two milquetoast statements in the very early going. But, given his utterly enormous influence in right wing circles, his "pro-vax" pronouncements—coupled with his extensive footsie playing with the hard right anti-vax movement—are way below the minimum he could have done. This is well short of the normal meaning of the English verb "to encourage."
Trump's unwillingness to put national interest before politics has killed tens of thousands of Americans.
You are just flat wrong in facts and analysis here. It should be sort of embarrassing for you.
To say that trump has barely mentioned the value of vaccination is just ignorant and shows you have not bothered to actually do a little bit of research to see if possibly your initial thoughts and inclinations might just possibly be inaccurate. Your opinions seem impervious to reality.
And opposition to having government mandate vaccination, which involves forcing citizens to inject a vaccine which is based on new technology and had a somewhat hurried and politically pressured approval, is NOT at all " pretty much identical " to opposing mass vaccination itself.
Can you not conceive of any scenario with a virus where the balance of risks and rewards means that the government should subsidize, encourage, pay for, and do everything to raise the number vaccinated, but where forcing those unwilling is not warranted? Even if your opinion that these circumstances with covid do warrant mandates, if you concede that there could be other scenarios where it did not , then someone can just think differently and feel that covid warrants strong encouragement but not mandates.
With vaccines, or any drug, there really should be gradual levels as the risk reward amounts and certainties vary ( and benefits should not include personal, just community, for mandates).
1) a vaccine is too risky , unproven, and/ or no clear benefits. So not approved by fda and basically govt bans use , even if a citizen wants it on their own
2) it is allowed for drug company to manufacture and distribute and citizens to pay for voluntarily, but govt does not encourage or discourage, or even somewhat discourages.
3) same as #2 but govt encourages
4) govt not only encourages but subsidizes, up to and including paying for it. With all sorts of graduations within this level.
5) govt soft mandates or gives strong incentives. Like requiring for going to restaurant or any job with public contact . Or rewarding people, even with money, for getting vaccinated.
6) a true hold you down forcibly and inject mandate ( which nobody is really saying) or maybe just making life really truly difficult without it ( no schools or employment without vaccine )
Someone saying they think we are in scenario # 4,that this is what covid warrants, is far from saying they are contending we are scenario #1 or 2, which is what an actual vaccine resistor has to think .
It is possible to think someone wrong on an issue and still respect their right to think so. And not be forced.
And it is just your sort of attitude that makes it worse from YOUR perspective. If you think that vaccination is a public good , how is equating trump opposing mandates to opposing vaccines itself help convince any trump true believer to get vaccinated.
Citation-less (as usual) word salad on your part.
It's not word salad; it's a coherent explanation of the viewpoint of some Republicans.
It's not the viewpoint I espouse, but it's a reasonable and cogent viewpoint, absolutely of one with "Give me Liberty or give me death", the first amendment, drug legalization, repeal of prohibition, and similar such viewpoints that prioritize the individual (even at the cost of hurting themself, their family, even broad society) over various forms of coercion.
Your utter lack of interest in what they are thinking says a whole lot more about you than about them...
"A person in 2021 cannot plausibly oppose vaccine mandates while simultaneously "encouraging" people to get vaccinated."
What are you talking about? Of course you can. In fact, I think that probably describes the majority of people in the country.
For readers of this blog, yes, it makes no sense logically, to be in favor of vaccination yet against vaccine mandates, given the circumstances.
But at the risk of somehow agreeing with Trump (oh, the humanity), one of the things Trump understands is that there are millions of morons out there who, like a five-year-old, simply don't like being told what to do. For this group
Trump is the ubermensch - a guy whose entire persona appears to be based on "no one tells me what to do!"
Now, one might reasonably ask "WTF, are you an actual adult?" Where is this ridiculous state of grace where you can glide through life without being "told what to do?"
But I digress. Its the same group who can be in favor of health insurance but opposed to the government providing it to everyone.
A large subset of the Trump base is against anything the liberals are for, regardless of the issue.
Its not the subset who thinks there are micro chips in the vaccine, that's a different group of idiots.
Technically I just said that he has told people several times he’s been vaccinated. But…
It is true that in between the thousands of hours of lying about the election and all his grifts, he has at least 5 or 6 times told people to get vaccinated. Of course, it’s hard to say he actually does “support vaccination” when he’s done absolutely nothing to rein in all the lies Fox News has told about it. For all the effort he’s put into it he might as well be saying “thoughts and prayers”.
He has said he encourages vaccination many times not just saying 5 or 6 times that he got vaccinated . And every time he promotes the fact that his administration did " warp speed" and takes all the credit for it, he is clearly implying that the vaccine that was developed is something to do . Of course , you do not take credit for something that does not work or is unsafe. And he had said it is safe and effective many times.
And actually, as trump is inclined to do , he has sometimes overplayed it as " his vaccine is the greatest ever developed ( it is not ) and as if the trials in developing it were perfect ( clearly the effectiveness was overstated and the immunity wanes quicker than expected) .
Now, has he " done all he could " to promote the vaccine? No, certainly not . He has been more focused on other things. Plus helping promote the vaccines is now " Biden's job" and any benefit largely accrues to Biden and he is not willing to help Biden even if it helps the nation. Accuse him of selfish self centerednass ( kept the misspelling as it works) , and OK.
But have democrats done the same? You bet. What about the vaccine skepticism in 2020 , from saying it was nuts to think we could develop a vaccine that fast to casting some doubts in it before the election because you cannot trust trump to some seemingly politically motivated delays in getting it out before the election.
And the media and democrats in general appear to mostly be interested in bashing trump instead of getting more vaccinated . Say trump made different contradictory and ambiguous statements on this ( which is really not true ) . If really interested in the greater good of vaccination, you would be trying to downplay every negative statement and talk about every positive statement- i.e. make it seem that trump was more pro vaccine than he was .
But trump has consistently said that he encourages vaccination, even if not as often or forcefully as he could have . That does make it easy for the media , and the Biden administration, and democrats in general, to go out of their way to emphasize that trump supports vaccination and publicize it every time trump says so. And the publicity in a positive light would just encourage trump to say it more .
But no. Instead it is continuously falsely stated that trump is not supporting vaccination, which might cause lower vaccination rates among some.
Seems many are far more interested in trying to blame trump for low vaccination rates than trying to increase vaccination rates. What might be stopping some trump supporters from being vaccinated is their perception that trump does not support it, not whether he actually does or not . So, when he does support vaccination, but maybe has not emphasized it loudly as much as he could, but the media and democrats spin that as if he is not supporting vaccination and some believe that falsehood ( Kevin clearly had if he thought this interview was a change) , then who is really at fault for this misperception?
However, I really do think it made not much difference . Kevin thinks trump supporters did not get vaccinated as they thought trump did not support it . Largely bunk . First, most strong trump supporters do know that trump supports vaccination, as they follow news on him from sources other than the media who have misrepresented this. Although some will pretend that they did not know if asked , if pushed they will admit and do not care . For a few, trump has lost their support over this .
On this and many issues, trump is a follower of his base, not a leader. Although trump has not backed off supporting vaccination, I think he has avoided talking about it at rallies and so because , instead of convincing the crowd, he might get booed.
He can say it until the cows come home but if he does not get Faux onboard it is useless. NYT or Maddow could scream “Trump loves the vax!” and it would not move the needle at all with the MAGAs since they do not hear it or read it. If they did it would be “Fake News”.
He has said he encourages vaccination many times
I'm sure your research will bear this out, but for some reason you just keep asserting it without evidence.
+1
Of course, it’s hard to say he actually does “support vaccination” when he’s done absolutely nothing to rein in all the lies Fox News has told about it.
This.
Nah.
Obama has never said we have to let J.D. ANTIVAXXX'S Hellbilly clan win. Drum wants to not only give them a win on sociocultural issues, he wants the left to fully disarm in the culture war & let the status quo of 1985 persist into the future with no assured end.
It doesn't matter. Trump doesn't run the show anymore. That horse left the barn long ago. Trumpism rules. That means just whatever crazy authoritarian shit pisses off the most libs at the moment is what goes in the current GOP. Trump could call for peace, brotherhood, hugging the homeless and illegal immigrants -- whatever. Doesn't matter. It's fuck everything and burn it all to the ground because that's what would make AOC cry. If I die of Covid in the meantime, wev!
I'll add that it no doubt stings a complete narcissist like Trump to the core to see all his MAGAt followers pissing all over his beloved "Warp Speed" vaccine project rather than erecting massive, golden colossus statues in his honor in public squares throughout America proclaiming his messianic bestowing of the magical Covid cure upon humanity. Instead of being awarded 20 concurrent Nobel Prizes for practically engineering the mRNA vaccine himself, his idiot minions are claiming it's all some kind of alien Chinese-Venezuelan hoax to inject Gates tracking bugs in you or something. I mean, who puts these wack-ass conspiratorial ideas in their heads in the first place?
You know, I’ve been kind of down with all the things hitting the country. But you’ve got me imagining Trump frustrated about not getting credit for other people’s work. I feel a little better now.
I think much of this has some truth if maybe exaggerated a bit .
But some nutty idea of a Chinese Venezuelan conspiracy ( Chinese is at least conceivable with their resources but Venezuela?) Is just not really seeing what the bulk of vaccine resistance is .
There is a a fringe minority that can believe some real crap that makes zero sense. But this small group are really not so politically partisan although some are identifying more republican today given where the current fads are . But many of this group used to be on the far left believing some of the nutty 9/11 conspiracy theories, and some still are both far left and far right simultaneously. That is crazy of course but they are. Sadly, I have a close relative in this group. Today a big fan of both trump and AOC and thinks they really are together. They are just a lost cause trying to talk in any sensible way ..
But the bulk of conservative vaccine resistance comes from much more pedestrian understandable differences that have some logical basis and these are potentially convinceable . Biggest issue is that the basis for any decision is the facts. And where do these facts come from ? Mostly scientific authorities in the government. And they simply do not trust the source of those facts anymore. With some reason as there has been a lot of manipulation, misleading statements, crap biased studies , etc. But my biggest counterargument there is that , even if you have zero trust in the cdc, what purpose would they have in covering up a truly unsafe vaccine. For those who understand things like that a secret bug is silly, that often works. Perhaps the govt downplaying vaccine risks makes sense , but they would not push a dangerous useless vaccine when it is going to hurt their own " side " as much. Often a general distrust makes people assume some hidden conspiracy without bothering too think of to what purpose.
Another issue is different risk assessment and what values you assign to different things . Although this is more of a factor for things like masking etc. , it comes into play with vaccines. For one, any small risk to fertility from vaccine ( although I think it is very small) tends to count for more with young conservatives vs liberals as those most eager to have a family lean conservative.
The Venezuela angle is an allusion to your side's attorneys Sidney Powell & L. Lin Wood alleging Chavista interference in the operation of voting machines produced by Dominion Voting Systems.
Not sure why no one has pointed out that BioNTech-Pfizer was NOT developed as part of Warp Speed. Trump has repeatedly claimed this, but it is not true. NYT on November 10, 2020:
"In July, Pfizer got a $1.95 billion deal with the government’s Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency effort to rush a vaccine to market, to deliver 100 million doses of the vaccine. The arrangement is an advance-purchase agreement, meaning that the company won’t get paid until they deliver the vaccines. Pfizer did not accept federal funding to help develop or manufacture the vaccine, unlike front-runners Moderna and AstraZeneca.
Pfizer has distanced itself from Mr. Trump and Operation Warp Speed. In an interview on Sunday, Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said, “We were never part of the Warp Speed,” adding, “we have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.”
On Monday, a spokeswoman for Pfizer clarified that the company is part of Operation Warp Speed as a supplier of a potential coronavirus vaccine.
Although it’s true that Pfizer and BioNTech had been working on a vaccine all year before the companies struck their deal with the U.S. government in July, a $1.95 billion deal is nevertheless a significant incentive to keep going. In fact, international health organizations have long used such market guarantees to encourage for-profit manufacturers to supply vaccines to the developing world."
Thank you. Two items from the WaPo:
Feb 6, 2017: “Trump’s vaccine views are at odds with those of most Americans, study says” [He opposed the standard school vaccines, supported the discredited autism/vaccine theory] and at least flirted with having Robert Kennedy Jr chair a commission.]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/02/02/trumps-vaccine-views-at-odds-with-those-of-most-americans-study-says/
March 12, 2021: “If you got a vaccine, Trump wants you to thank him”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trump-wants-credit-for-the-vaccine-as-if/2021/03/12/4f40a492-836e-11eb-81db-b02f0398f49a_story.html
I'm no Trump fan, but credit where credit is due.
- Trump was pro-vaccines by March 2020:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/health/trump-vaccines.html
- He was still pushing vaccines a year later:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-says-he-recommends-covid-19-vaccine-its-a-great-vaccine-and-its-a-safe-vaccine-11615942271
- I'm not the only one who says this:
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/04/rachel-maddow/what-trump-said-encourage-covid-19-vaccine-use/
Trump has engaged in the usual political criticisms of how Biden has rolled out vaccines (too slow, time wasted on prioritizing particular groups, blah blah); something plenty of pro-vaccine people have also criticized.
But serious anti-vaxxer criticism is a DIFFERENT strand of the Republican party.
It's way too much to hope for in the bulk population, but the few of us who actually care about truth and rationality should see this as a win. Not only was an anti-vaxxer converted, but this win was in a fairly closed mind. Are you, the reader, willing to be as open-minded as Trump; to change your opinion in the face of actual evidence?
This is a one-off example (as to Trump). More realistic, and tragic, examples of truth and rationality winning out are the ones where conservative anti-vaxxers admit they were wrong as they are dying from covid.
Trump racheted up the assault on all media that did not kiss his ass 100% of the time to 15 on a scale of ten, and the result was that millions of not too bright people now say they "don't trust" institutions or any media other than Fox, which is as ridiculous a belief as I can imagine, since mainstream coverage of breaking news does not require "trust" in order to consume it rationally.
If the mainstream media reports that a tornado might hit tennessee, and it hits kentucky that's not really some sort of liberal bias error, its kind of obvious that when it comes to predictions meteorology has its limits.
But that's where it is. I am sure that much of Fox daily programming, sans the opinion stuff, is equally benign.
But with the mainstream media all-in on controlling the pandemic, and Fox all in on whatever nonsensical position they think will get them views, rationality points to the conclusion that Trump has to do quite a bit more than have five instances of saying go get vaccinated - he would need a comprehensive walk back on his "fake news" issue and he is not going to do that, ever. I'm sure in the same O'Reilly tour he had a nice fake news segment for way more minute than one minute on vaccinations.
So no, it does not change my mind, at least.