The CDC alerted states to be ready to distribute a covid-19 vaccine by November 1. Two days before election day. Seriously.
Federal health officials are urging states to get ready for coronavirus vaccine distribution by Nov. 1, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.
The letter from CDC Director Robert Redfield to governors is the latest indication that the Trump administration is preparing to deliver on the president’s promise for a coronavirus vaccine this year. But it’s unclear if any vaccine could be ready by Nov. 1, just two days before Election Day.
It’s not unclear at all. there’s no way a vaccine will be ready for mass distribution just two days before Election Day Even if one were approved by the FDA already, manufacturing vaccines in large quantities isn’t a matter of just pushing a button at the vaccine manufacturing plant. It’s a complex process that can take months.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November.
The new C.D.C. guidance is the latest sign of an accelerating race for a vaccine to greatly ease a pandemic that has killed more than 184,000 Americans. The documents were sent out last week, the same day that President Trump told the nation in his speech to the Republican convention that a vaccine might arrive before the end of the year.
In other words, this was coordinated with the Trump campaign.
“This timeline of the initial deployment at the end of October is deeply worrisome for the politicization of public health and the potential safety ramifications,” said Saskia Popescu, an infection prevention epidemiologist based in Arizona. “It’s hard not to see this as a push for a pre-election vaccine.”
The science people have been saying all along that while we might get a vaccine approved for use this year, it won’t be available for most of us until some time next year. And so far I’m not seeing anything to contradict that projection. At best, before the end of this year we might see limited distribution to health care workers, or more likely to people with connections to the Trump family. But not to most of us.
The worst part of this is that it undermines — I should say, further undermines — the credibility of the FDA and CDC at a time we really need to be able to trust the FDA and CDC. We need honest information about what’s going on. And when there is a vaccine, people have to be willing to take it.
The FDA and CDC were already being slammed for political decisions before this latest announcement. This is from August 28.
The credibility of two of the nation’s leading public health agencies was under fire this week after controversial decisions that outside experts said smacked of political pressure from President Donald Trump as he attempts to move past the devastating toll of the coronavirus ahead of the November election.
The head of the Food and Drug Administration grossly misstated, then corrected, claims about the lifesaving power of a plasma therapy for COVID-19 authorized by his agency. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly updated its guidelines to suggest fewer Americans need to get tested for coronavirus, sparking outrage from scientists. …
… On Friday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn removed a conservative public relations official involved in the botched plasma announcement from her role heading the agency’s press office, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The move came less than two weeks after the White House tapped Emily Miller for the role. Miller previously worked as a reporter for the right-wing One America News Network and as a staffer for Sen. Ted Cruz’s reelection campaign. She did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
I want to inject here that there is no way Emily Miller would have been hired if Trump hadn’t demanded it. Politico: “Colleagues said that Miller, with no prior medical or science experience, was a bad fit inside an agency rushing to fight a pandemic. ‘There was an inability to do anything inside the agency,’ said one health official. ‘She couldn’t even pronounce convalescent plasma.'”
Trump administration officials said Wednesday that the CDC testing guidance was revised by the White House virus task force “to reflect current evidence,” but did not detail what that was. The new recommendations say it’s not necessary for most people who have been in close contact with infected people, but don’t feel sick, to get tested. Outside experts said that flies in the face of the scientific consensus that wide-scale testing is needed to stamp out new infections.
The week began with Hahn forced to backtrack after using an erroneous statistic describing the effectiveness of the blood plasma therapy granted emergency use for COVID-19, as Trump twisted the facts and inflated the significance of the move.
Hahn “hurt his own credibility, he hurt that of his agency and he probably hurt the credibility of the next vaccine that will get approved,” said Daniel Carpenter, a Harvard University professor of government.
So medical and health professionals aren’t trusting the CDC and FDA these days. What hope do the rest of us have?
The Trump Administration may already have hurt U.S. chances for getting the most effective vaccine by refusing to join with other countries in the effort. See 172 countries and multiple candidate vaccines engaged in COVID-19 vaccine Global Access Facility from the World Health Organization. This effort, called the COVAX initiative, is “a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved.” Most of the world is involved, but not the U.S., of course. Because Trump does not play well with others.
Charles Pierce, today: “[T]he US bail on the WHO program not only could put this country on the outside looking in, but also will hamstring the effort to prevent hoarding, and to guarantee an equitable distribution of a safe vaccine once one is developed.”
So the same pack of clowns who botched getting an effective test distributed a few months ago will be in charge of getting a vaccine distributed,. We’re doomed.
Kaiser Health Network/Associated Press:
In a four-page memo this summer, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told health departments across the country to draft vaccination plans by Oct. 1 “to coincide with the earliest possible release of COVID-19 vaccine.”
But health departments that have been underfunded for decades say they currently lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and then to distribute, administer and track hundreds of millions of doses. Nor do they know when, or if, they’ll get federal aid to do that. …
… An ongoing investigation by KHN and the AP has detailed how state and local public health departments across the U.S. have been starved for decades, leaving them underfunded and without adequate resources to confront the coronavirus pandemic. The investigation further found that federal coronavirus funds have been slow to reach public health departments, forcing some communities to cancel non-coronavirus vaccine clinics and other essential services.
States are allowed to use some of the federal money they’ve already received to prepare for immunizations. But KHN and the AP found that many health departments are so overwhelmed with the current costs of the pandemic — such as testing and contact tracing — that they can’t reserve money for the vaccine work to come. Health departments will need to hire people to administer the vaccines and systems to track them, and pay for supplies such as protective medical masks, gowns and gloves, as well as warehouses and refrigerator space. …
…Many health officials say they feel burned by the country’s struggle to provide hospitals with ventilators last spring, when states found themselves bidding against one another for a limited supply. Those concerns are amplified by the country’s continuing difficulties providing enough testing kits; supplying health workers with personal protective equipment; allocating drugs such as remdesivir; and recruiting contact tracers — who track down everyone with whom people diagnosed with COVID-19 have been in contact.
Although Ehresmann said she’s concerned Minnesota could run out of syringes, she said the CDC has assured her they will provide them.
Given that vaccines are far more complex than personal protective equipment and other medical supplies — one vaccine candidate must be stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — Plescia said people should be prepared for shortages, delays and mix-ups.
“It’s probably going to be even worse than the problems with testing and PPE,” Plescia said.
Those are just highlights; you need to read the whole thing to get an inkling of the scope of the problem. And Trump’s political hires are not the people who can pull this off, even assuming Mitch McConnell will agree to spend the money.
Right now, only about half of Americans say they are willing to take a covid vaccine, and I can’t say I blame them. If Trump’s people rush out a vaccine that turns out to have unfortunate side effects, we can kiss off being rid of the virus until long after the rest of the world has moved on. No point renewing your passport, folks; you ain’t goin’ anywhere.
If Joe Biden wins the November election, his first task will be to have replacements ready to take charge of the FDA, CDC, and every other agency connected to public health so that they can hit the ground running immediately after the inauguration. In 139 days. A lot can happen until then.
Close-up medical syringe with a vaccine.
Want to see a contortionist in action? Watch a Trump-supporting anti-vaxer reconcile their 100% support for Trump with 100% opposition to t vaccine.
GOP POV: "The government always fails. Put us in charge and we will prove it."
It has been ingrained into republicans to not trust our government. How does our country address problems (Covid-19, Climate Change, Income Inequality, Health Care) moving forward when tRump has destroyed confidence and trust among the rest of us in what the government does? Or is that part of the plan to further the control of the Oligarchs?
"Or is that part of the plan to further the control of the Oligarchs?"
Make that a definitive statement and you would then be correct.
Apart from the deepening corruption – yeah some dolt from OAN is going to fly well in a supposedly scientific organization – it will be interesting to see what if anything is actually "delivered" by Election Day.
It wouldn't surprise me if Trump and cronies figure out how to manufacture a fake pill, call it a vaccine, administer it to as many sheep who are willing to take it, and call it Victory, all to rescue Trump at the polls. I wonder how far they're going to get with this plan. The letter is the first step. Some sort of "vaccine" – probably from Russia is next.
I wonder how far they're going to get with this plan.
They've already gotten all they want to get with their plan. They have publicly destroyed the credibility of the CDC and the FDA. And they've introduced a tremendous amount of confusion and doubt into a situation that is awash with confusion. On top of it all their plan leaves only 2 days to gauge the efficacy of the vaccine. It a typical Trump maneuver. If there ever comes to be a moment of accountability for this fiasco Trump will have his stooges to lay the blame on and berate them as losers and incompetents in the same manner he did to Jeff Sessions.
I feel sympathetic for Fauci. Trump has put him in a vice. He is in a position where he stands to lose a $399,000 yearly salary and his credibility if he bucks Trump to try and defend his professional credibility, or he can issue wishy washy unambiguous statements in hopes of not incurring Trump's wrath while hoping to navigate a tenuous situation where it's possible to come out on the other side with all that he's worked all his life still intact. It's been said that all that Trump touches dies…If Fauci plays his cards right he might prove to be the exception.
Again, not to boast on my prowess in reading body language, but.. I read Fauci as cringing on the inside whenever Trump feels compelled to expound on his knowledge of the corona virus. I can see the gears in Fauci's head turning with the thought of …How do I deal with this big bloviating bag of shit?
I believe Fauci is 79 and a career civil servant. His pension is safe. I think he has been trying to control the damage but should have baled months ago
In point of fact, I saw a report that, when Fauci heard Trump was going to see people discussing disinfectants, and sunlight, deactivating the virus, he said "Trump's going to ask about injecting it."
I have spent my entire life believing in "better living through chemistry (legal, and illegal chemicals – and natural ones, too!)," so I'm about as far from being an anti-vaxxer as a person can get.
Having said that, I do not trust tRUMP and his Fascist minions to tell me the truth about… Well, about ANY DAMN THING!
So, if there's a vaccine for this tRUMP Plague available tomorrow, I think I'd sit out the first few rounds, to see how effective – or lethal – that vaccine proves to be.
I'm a liberal, which means I'm all for science and scientific evidence, and not some conservative who hears what s/he want to hear, and disregards the rest.
tRUMP is a weak, scared, narcissistic, and evil grifter, who knows that if he loses, he'll likely spend the rest of his days – and the last of the dwindling fortune his father left him, if there's any money left – trying to avoid dying in jail. A fate he richly deserves,
Believe him at your own peril.
I feel safe where I'm at.
Very, very bored, but safe.
If it wasn't for ennui, I'd have nothing nui in my life.
The GREAT Tom Seaver has just passed away from Covid.-19.
He was 75, and suffering from Alzheimers Disease.
I'm a lifelong Yankees fan, and Seaver's best years were with the Mets – whom I despise – but still, I loved go watch him pitch. WHAT A PITCHER! Maybe the greatest right-hander of all time!
RIP: Tom Seaver.
In this Yankees fan heart, you are still the greatest pitcher I ever saw!
As a fellow Mets hater, I agree with you that Tom Seaver was a great pitcher. However, you must be too young to have seen Bob Gibson (the greatest pitcher I have ever seen in my 72 years) pitch.
Lost two to cyberspace. I will try again. Who in their right mind would try a vaccine foisted by the Trump administration at or near election eve? Trust is the coin of the realm. Remember that about a third of Americans (pronounced the turd) think that a vaccine for the COVID has existed for months and months. No evidence but they report that way on polls. Ground reality around my part of the world ( a screaming hot spot ) claims that the COVID will go away after the election. No evidence and no logic just asserted as fact. This is about a similar turd or so but I have no survey or data to back this claim, and how would we get it in this world of rural misinformation? We have nothing to trust in.
From R,W. Apple in a special to the NYT
And I remember that Sunday Morning to this day and Shultz's utterance of the phrase Trust is the coin of the Realm.
So would you buy a used car from Richard Milhouse Nixon, over a vaccine from Donald J. Trump?
Lost two to cyberspace.
Been there done that! You've got to look to the bright side.The cosmos has expanded with intelligence by some degree. All is not lost.
Just as a side note, last week Trump sanctioned a Russian government research institute, almost certainly scuppering tho international part of a Phase 3 trial for the Russian vaccine, Sputnik 5.
What next? On to the British Oxford trials and the Chinese trials?
Hitler must be envious.
"Russia, if you're listening…"
Well, on the dark side Putin will be freed up to devote more of his energies getting his novichok poisoning trials up to speed. Seems like either there is a shortcoming in the administering of dosages or the lethality of the novichok itself. Too many of his political opponents and dissidents are managing to survive. Maybe he should go back to using polonium.
Oh, I saw Gibson!
And I rate him right up there.
Gibson's career was delayed – by racism – because he didn't become a full-time starter until he was 26!
He was the meanest pitcher I ever saw!
Awesome Proud Boy cartoon.
Forget baseball, Saturday is the Kentucky Derby. Don't know if there will be rich ladies parading around with their hats but we will have a chance to view some beautiful animals. Although humans view themselves as the highest life form on this planet, I wonder sometimes. All animals know their place, we have predators and prey animals as the creator made them. Only humans attempt to control the ecosystem for their own selfish purposes. I am not a Christian but there is the story of Noah in the bible which goes that God was very disappointed with his creation so decided to do away with most of them. He chose to save Noah and a bunch of animals. Are we at that place again?