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By John Wojcik
The Trump administration admits it is aiming for a vaccine for COVID-19 before Election Day and that the public will joyfully rise up to reward him with a second term in the White House.
The news this week that AstraZeneca, a leading pharmaceutical giant, has halted its trial of a COVID-19 vaccine because of an “unexplained illness” in one of the test subjects is not welcome news for a president determined to have a vaccine at any cost before Americans cast their ballots on Nov. 3.
Trump has been angling for a quick “America First” vaccine ever since last March when he tried to bribe CureVac, a German company, to sell exclusive rights to a vaccine only to the United States. The German government and countries around the world reacted with revulsion and put the kibosh on Trump’s scheme.
Americans now are expressing widespread fear of taking any kind of “cure” from a president who once pursued solutions to the pandemic ranging from a variety of unproven drugs and vitamins to the drinking of bleach and the injection of disinfectants. People can be expected to line up for a vaccine only if they are convinced by credible scientists and health experts that the vaccine is safe.
The problem is that the president has undermined and destroyed the credibility of the two most important guardians of public health in the nation, the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration, which is pushing “emergency authorizations for use” of things the president tells them he wants. Everyone knows, of course, that the president is not a medical authority....
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