President Biden and Former President Trump
Read my latest piece in The Daily Beast about how our progress in controlling the pandemic is the result of a strange collaboration between President Trump and President Biden – and how Trump could play another crucial role moving forward.
I was a relentless critic of Donald Trump throughout his administration, but right now we are seeing a dangerous resurgence of coronavirus via the Delta variant, particularly in deep-red states with low vaccination rates – including many Trump-loving states like Arkansas and Missouri. Donald Trump could make a huge difference by publicly urging his supporters to get vaccinated in these states, where new cases are spreading rapidly amongst the unvaccinated populations.
“I doubt that either POTUS 45 or 46 would be anxious to admit that it was complementary efforts by both presidents that allowed the U.S. to create, manufacture, and distribute Covid-19 vaccines in record time and with startling efficiency. But it was after Operation Warp Speed that President Biden was able to focus on upping vaccine production even further and simultaneously assemble a spectacularly effective team to make sure that the shots were distributed rapidly and promoted aggressively. In so doing, the Biden strategy resulted in twice as many doses administered as he himself had set as a goal for his first 100 days.
Of course, in addition to this unlikely alliance of two politically and ideologically polar opposite U.S. leaders, much credit is owed to the scientists working in academia and in the private sector since at least 2003 when more than 770 people were killed by the first global SARS outbreak. The whole idea of using messenger RNA to develop effective immunity to any coronavirus, including SARS-CoV-2 (the cause of Covid-19), is something that has been in the works for nearly two decades.
How interesting is it that in spite of Trump’s virulent attacks on science, his boisterous rejection of evidence-based public health policies, his off-the-wall flouting of recommendations to wear masks and keep appropriate social distancing, avoid crowds, and so on, that he pushed hard to get vaccine development fast-tracked.”
