The Patriot Post® · COVID Vaccine Thanks to Trump's Operation Warp Speed

Thanks to President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, a COVID-19 vaccine is close to release and, according to researchers, it is 90% effective in stopping the spread of the novel virus. So much for Joe Biden’s demonstrably false claim that “Trump has done nothing to stop the coronavirus” and his insistence that any vaccine breakthrough would be at least months away.

The vaccine developed by Pfizer is currently in late-stage trials, and the 90% success rate far exceeds the Food and Drug Administration’s minimum effectiveness target of 50% for consideration of expedited approval. To put this in context, the annual flu vaccine is 30%-60% effective on a good year. Pfizer notes that there have been no safety issues and that it plans to apply to the FDA for expedited approval this month.

When will the vaccine become available to the general public? “Pfizer says it expects to be able to produce up to 50 million doses by the end of 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021,” The Washington Times reports. “The candidate is a two-dose vaccine, so the initial allotment translates to 25 million recipients.”

Vice President Mike Pence responded to the news by stating, “Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by President Trump, Pfizer announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trail is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers.”

Moreover, Pfizer’s not the only company seeing success. Novavax has received fast-track authorization by the FDA for its coronavirus vaccine, which will expedite the review following its completion of stage-three testing trials.

How has this vaccine development been accomplished so rapidly? As The Wall Street Journal editorial board observes, “The apparent breakthrough is a credit to the innovative capacity of the private pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer has developed the vaccine using its own capital. That requires making a return on investment, which the politicians in both parties should keep in mind when they promise price controls on drugs. That would mean fewer resources to tackle the next coronavirus or deadly disease.”

The timing of Pfizer’s announcement, just one week after the election, does appear curious if not outright suspicious. Was there any political consideration that may have delayed the news? Charlie Kirk claimed that Pfizer knew it had developed a successful vaccine prior to the elect but stayed mum, a claim which Pfizer disputes. An earlier announcement obviously would have benefited Trump, validating his claim that a vaccine was on its way before year’s end. Trump certainly believes the announcement was intentionally delayed. “The Democrats didn’t want to have me get a Vaccine WIN, prior to the election, so instead it came out five days later,” he observed. “As I’ve said all along!”

As with anything in an election year, a pandemic vaccine was bound to be politicized, and we may never know all the calculations involved.

Naturally, Democrats sought both to downplay the good news and dismiss giving any credit to the Trump administration. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who oversees the state with the highest death toll by far, elected to play politics with the news. “The good news is the Pfizer tests look good and we’ll have a vaccine shortly,” he said before ridiculously adding, “The bad news is that it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan.” Cuomo then asserted without evidence that “the vaccination plan … I believe [is] flawed. I believe it learns nothing from the past.”

And why does Cuomo believe it’s flawed? Because the government doesn’t completely control the entire process. “They’re going to take this vaccine and they’re going to go through the private mechanism.” He then asserted that doing so would “slow” the process of vaccine availability. News flash to Cuomo: It’s not private companies that create onerous regulations that slow processes; it’s government red tape. And the more the government is involved, the more the process will be guaranteed to be slowed. It’s clear that Cuomo’s primary concern is making sure the government and not private industry gets all the credit for “saving” Americans.

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) responded to Cuomo’s comments by asking, “What on earth is Governor Cuomo talking about? This is great news and everyone — Republicans and Democrats and apolitical folks — should all be jointly thrilled about the possibility of an effective vaccine.” Sasse then took Cuomo to the woodshed: “After this nasty virus has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and put millions out of work, it is beyond disgusting that Governor Cuomo would use a glimmer of hope for another worn-out ‘Trump is bad’ talking point. When we get a vaccine, we’re going to need all hands on deck distributing it as fast as possible — shamelessly politicizing this is dangerous and stupid.”

And yet Democrats and the Leftmedia are loathe to give the Trump administration any credit. For example, The Washington Post falsely asserted, “No, Pfizer’s apparent vaccine success is not a function of Trump’s ‘Operation Warp Speed,’” only to later admit that, yes, Pfizer was a part of the effort, even if it did not take government money for its research and development.

Biden responded by welcoming the news but avoiding giving Trump any credit. Then he once again touted his divisive mask-wearing “solution” as if it is the main way to stop the viral spread.

It would appear that so long as Trump remains in office, any positive developments made on COVID-19 will be either downplayed, ignored, or politicized to the point of distrust. But here’s hoping there’s truly good news on the horizon.

(Updated.)