Over four years, President Donald Trump has shown a propensity for lying. He has also been amazingly honest about his commitment to his political future and doing anything to ensure he returns to the White House.
The president admitted during a radio recent interview with Geraldo Rivera to “rushing” and “pushing” a Covid-19 vaccine that would be ready “right around” election time Nov. 3.
As Business Insider reported Sept. 2, “ ‘I’m rushing it. I am. I’m pushing everybody,’ Trump told radio host Geraldo Rivera. ‘If you had another president, other than me, you wouldn’t be talking vaccines for two years.’ ”
“ ‘We’re balancing speed and safety and we’re on pace to have a vaccine available this year, maybe far in advance of the end of the year,’ Trump said during a coronavirus press briefing. ‘And we’re mass-producing the most promising candidates in advance so that we’re ready upon approval. We have our military lined up, it’s logistics, it’s all about logistics.’ ”
›This is the same president who pushed the Federal Drug Administration to fast track and purchase hydroxychloroquine as a magic bullet for Covid-19. It wasn’t. It was eventually scrapped as a treatment due to concerns it harmed people. Then there were his declaration blood plasma treatments could solve the problem. That sent folks scurrying to look into it, but it was just another snake oil treatment.
This same man has insisted that maybe bleach, inside the body, or special lights could kill Covid-19 and had people drinking bleach in response. This same man has declared one day the virus would simply “disappear.” Where is the scientific research on that?
But this isn’t any ordinary man, this is the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world who controls the executive branch, meaning federal cabinet agencies, the military and other levers of power. Few are willing to contradict, disagree with or even bring the president bad news.
So shortly after the president’s Geraldo interview was made public, the Centers for Disease Control was telling states to get ready for a possible vaccine just in case. “Just in case,” is that a scientific term or concept—or is a federal agency bowing to the wishes of a self-interested, politically-motivated president?
As the Associated Press reported Sept. 2, “The federal government has told states to prepare for a coronavirus vaccine to be ready to distribute by Nov. 1. … Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said states “in the near future’ will receive permit applications from McKesson Corp., which has contracted with CDC to distribute vaccines to places including state and local health departments and hospitals. … He wrote that any waivers will not compromise the safety or effectiveness of the vaccine. The Associated Press obtained the letter, which was first reported by McClatchy.
“The CDC also sent three planning documents to some health departments that included possible timelines for when vaccines would be available. The documents are to be used to develop plans for early vaccination when the supply might be constrained, according to one of the documents, which outlined a scenario in which a vaccine could be available as soon as the end of October.”
Though the CDC declaration wasn’t a sure thing, it’s troubling and fits a troubling trend. Like the Federal Drug Administration saying there could be a kind of fast track approval of a vaccine using emergency powers.
Not that the vaccine would be immediately available to everyone as the CDC director said health officials should “work out now which groups to prioritize for a vaccine, identify providers who will administer vaccine, and take other steps to prepare.” What does that mean for Black folks? Are we supposed to be guinea pigs? Min. Farrakhan has clearly warned the history of deadly medicine practice against Blacks means we cannot blindly trust people who have killed us. His words? Don’t take their vaccine.
“Several public health experts pointed out that final stage trials of experimental vaccines are still recruiting, and are at best halfway through that process. The vaccines are two doses, and each is given a month apart. The experts told the AP they did not understand how there could be adequate data on whether the vaccines work and are safe before Nov. 1,” noted the Associated Press.
Despite that concern, Pfizer, which is running a vaccine trial, said Sept. 3 that the president’s prediction could come true.
It clearly looks like what Mr. Trump wants, Mr. Trump gets—even if its not in the best interests of the American people.
“Unlike a therapeutic that is given to sick people who may have no alternative, a vaccine is given to healthy people, ‘so you have a much higher burden of proof,’ ” said the dean of Brown University’s public health school.
There must be a higher standard for the health of the American people, if their well-being is the primary reason for a vaccine. The first rule of medicine is “do no harm,” not obey the president at all costs.
“Seventy-eight percent of Americans worry the Covid-19 vaccine approval process is being driven more by politics than science, according to a new survey from STAT and the Harris Poll, a reflection of concern that the Trump administration may give the green light to a vaccine prematurely,” reported StatNews.com.
“The response was largely bipartisan, with 72 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats expressing such worries, according to the poll.”
U.S. voters are skeptical when it comes to a potential Covid-19 vaccine and say that one made available this year would be rushed, at least according to a recent CBS poll on the matter. “Just 21% of voters nationwide now say they would get a vaccine as soon as possible if one became available at no cost, down from 32% in late July. Most would consider it but would wait to see what happens to others before getting one,” noted cbsnews.com. When asked what their first thought would be if a vaccine was made available this year 35 percent of those surveyed said it would be a scientific achievement but 65 percent said their first thought would be that it was “rushed through.”
The survey conducted between Sep. 2 – 4 on behalf of on behalf of CBS News by YouGov was based on a representative sample of nearly 2,500 registered voters. How Democrats and Republicans viewed coronavirus vaccine developments differed. Of the 65 percent that responded their first thought would be that a vaccine made available this year was “rushed through” 77 percent who felt this way were Democrats compared to only 48 percent Republican survey respondents. Among White Democrats, the poll revealed Whites were more than twice as likely as Blacks in the party to say they would be willing get a vaccine as soon as one was made available.
“I say to my brothers and sisters in Africa, if they come up with a vaccine be careful. Don’t let them vaccinate you with their history of treachery through vaccines, through medication. Are you listening? I say to the African presidents, do not take their medications. I say to those of us in America, we need to call a meeting of our skilled virologists, epidemiologists, students of biology and chemistry and we need to look at not only what they give us, we need to give ourselves something better,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, in a major July 4 address, “The Criterion,” from his home in Michigan.
“My teacher told me, don’t speak to some, speak to the whole. I’m speaking for Black America, for Hispanic America, for the Native American and for those who are desirous of life. They’re making money now plotting to give seven billion five hundred million people a vaccination. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda, you want to depopulate the earth? What the hell gives you that right? Who are you to sit down with your billions and talk about who can live and who should die? That’s why your world is coming to an end quickly because you have sentenced billions to death. But God is now sentencing you to the death that you are sentencing to others.
“When the White man was made his father was a liar, his father was a murderer, so they’re born with lie and murder in their nature. How do they lie so easily?” he asked.
Millions of Americans are skeptical about the rush to a so-called vaccine cure. According to a Gallup Poll in August, “many Americans appear reluctant to be vaccinated, even if a vaccine were FDA-approved and available to them at no cost. Asked if they would get such a COVID-19 vaccine, 65 percent say they would, but 35 percent would not.”
“Recent polls have found as few as 50 percent of people in the United States are committed to receiving a vaccine, with another quarter wavering. Some of the communities most at risk from the virus are also the most leery: Among Black people, who account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, 40 percent said they wouldn’t get a vaccine in a mid-May poll by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago,” added Science magazine online.
So, who do you trust, your eyes and ears or a president with a lust for political victory and a penchant for lying?
(Naba’a Muhammad is editor in chief for The Final Call Newspaper. Find him on Facebook and Twitter: @RMfinalcall.)
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