Operation Warp Speed finally credited by name
Democrats have been loath to give the Trump Administration credit for our successful vaccines, as if the vaccines appeared like Manna from Heaven
At a morning news conference today, August 5, Anthony Fauci did something I’ve not seen any other member of President Biden’s Coronavirus team do – by name, he credited former President Donald Trump, former Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, and Operation Warp Speed for bringing Covid-19 vaccines to Americans in the shortest possible time frame.
I’d heard President Biden once before refer to the “previous administration” in acknowledging the availability of vaccines by mid-winter, but I’ve never seen or read such a clear-cut reference to people who are hated by most Democratic politicians and mainstream media pundits alike. There may have been previous instances where acknowledgment by name was done, but if so they were hardly common.
Why now? The apparent change in the Administration’s public health campaign on Covid may reflect a need to reach Trump supporters, who are believed to be among the most vaccine-hesitant Americans. I’m glad to see a change in tactics, if not in heart. I believe in the vaccines, as most Americans do. Perhaps the Biden Administration was reminded of the old saw: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
I’m a never-Trumper. He’s not even an authentic Conservative and it really may have been “the circular firing squad” that Barack Obama described that allowed Trump to survive all the other Republican presidential hopefuls in 2016. Nonetheless, I have to ask why Trump attracted so much popular support in the first place, and why does his base seem to still be loyal to him, in spite of imminent revelations about his finances and incontrovertible evidence that he wanted to overturn the results of the November election (and that’s just the evidence we have seen so far)? No doubt Trump grew ever more defiant and dangerous the longer he was in office. No doubt he was a sexist and misogynist, and made racist comments about immigrants. No doubt he wasn’t even a good businessman so much as a wizard at successful “branding” and via his tenure as host of a popular reality television show.
But the relentless attacks on him by both Democrats and many in the media were easily construed as attacks on his supporters. The Democrats and the media showed little or no understanding as to why so many people who supposedly “should be” Democrats nonetheless voted for Trump and continue to support him. Counted among these supporters are the children of the old Reagan Democrats, the vestiges of the old Tea Party (who often were small-time businessmen and women, hardly the stuff of elite or snobbish Democrats) and many rural voters, as well. They were voting for the party of the rich!
The answer is not difficult to fathom. I would suggest this support existed because Trump’s base saw the Democratic Party abandoning their vital interests by seeming to support only diversity, immigration, and unions, all the stuff of the Democratic Party’s “big tent,” but which often seemed to see a lot of disaffected people on the outside. It doesn’t much matter if the Democrats or media really were this fixated – it’s clearly the impression that was created by their constant messaging. By ignoring any of Trump’s successes, though, and by refusing to utter his name except in contempt, the Democrats and their allies in the media alienated his supporters even further.
No Mutation without Replication
Anthony Fauci made one particularly interesting statement in the August 5 televised conference: “No mutation without replication.” It’s a rule known to all epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists. That’s why he wants everyone to be vaccinated – it is hoped that it will stop replication. But there’s another side to the story, as addressed by former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb who served in the Trump Administration (again, not everyone who served under Trump was evil or stupid). By knocking out most of the variants, but not the most dangerous one, you are in effect “selecting” for that most dangerous variant, he cautioned. Gottlieb was speaking of the South African variant at the time (hence I’m using that name) when interviewed on CBS’s “Face the Nation” last winter. That mutation apparently has not become the most dangerous one, but the point is still well taken. If we suppress all but the most dangerous mutation, then what do we do?
I appreciate your comments. Most of the comments I heard regarding the vaccine were to attribute it to “the previous administration” so it was never Biden’s vaccine. He was just the one who ended up being able to get it out the door and into the hands of healthcare workers to get it in our arms.
I am flabbergasted at the refusal of so many to take the vaccine. It’s not like the health experts are putting poison into people’s bodies, but giving their bodies the fighting chance they need to fight off the “real” virus.
I’m also disappointed in so many people not wanting to wear a mask “FOR THEIR OWN PROTECTION” let alone to protect others.
No, they are not fun to wear. I’m a teacher and I dislike wearing them as much as my students did last year, but darned if I’m going to leave my mask off this year with a more dangerous and contagious virus out there. I’ve had my 2 doses of vaccine and will take a third if it’s deemed necessary. It not only protects me, but also my family.
Please, please get vaccinated. It will help to stop this virus from becoming more and more dangerous. Listen to the Science and the doctors. Get your vaccinations as soon as you are eligible and able to.
Susan - thanks for your thoughtful comments. I understand vaccine hesitation, up to a point - everything is so sudden and dramatic, the disease and the vaccines - but I'd like to think that the overwhelming majority of people would come down on the side of getting vaccinated.