Trump’s not bothering to hide his political interference in vaccine push

Trump is trying to create an impression of a return to normality before Election Day — one reason he pushed so hard for the return of Big Ten college football. A conference with Midwestern swing states that announced Wednesday would kick off its season in late October. Promoting a vaccine — whether one has completed clinical trials or not — appears to be a crucial part of the President’s strategy.

His pressure on Redfield left no doubt that his short-term electoral considerations are far more important to him than a credible inoculation that Americans trust.

The President’s power play also left the CDC chief untenable, even though his statements were nearly accurate.

After a telephone call from the President and Trump’s public rebuke, a CDC official told CNN that Redfield now realized that he misunderstood the questions about the vaccines.

His climbdown left his credibility shattered and means that any future statements he makes will be viewed through the prism of Trump’s bullying interference based on ongoing efforts to undermine science.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of Medicine at George Washington University, said the President’s performance on Wednesday was “stunning.”

More broadly, Trump’s behavior showed how a President who disdains details and has never leveled with Americans about the virus had been such a failure in mitigating the worst health crisis in 100 years.

By repeatedly talking about a vaccine as if it was already available and not subject to rigorous clinical trials, Trump also cast doubt on the process of scientific evaluation that will be required before regulators approve it.

His comments are unlikely to build trust in a vaccine that was already being greeted with skepticism among many Americans in polls. A lack of confidence in the program is the nightmare scenario since a vaccine is the best hope of eventually ending the pandemic and restoring vibrance to American life.

There’s the real country, where it will take many months for all Americans to get vaccinated once one is approved and manufactured. This country lost 1,200 citizens on Tuesday alone, will shortly mourn its 200,000th victim, and has rising cases from a base that’s far higher than other wealthy nations.

This country is run by a President who told reporter and author Bob Woodward in February that the coronavirus was “deadly” but kept the accurate scale of the threat from Americans in a way that likely cost tens of thousands of lives. Other costs of that decision are astronomical. Some 30 million Americans lost jobs in a consequent economic crisis, millions of young people are caught up doing school and college on Zoom, and the travel industry has collapsed.

Then there’s Trumpland, constructed on a framework of lies and misinformation designed to trick voters in November from dwelling on his poor performance. It’s a place where masks recommended by people like Redfield don’t work.

Where Trump’s assurances of mass vaccinations are just weeks away for millions in a nation “rounding the corner.” Where everyone’s getting rich on stocks to make up for lost jobs in the crashed economy, cramming thousands into an indoor presidential campaign rally would, in this imaginary scenario, not be dangerous. The return of Big Ten football would be another sign of normality restored by a “tremendous” government effort that had saved millions of lives.