The Patriot Post® · Herd Immunity With COVID Vaccine by May 2021?

Thanks to President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, at least two American COVID-19 vaccines have been developed in record time. When Trump made that prediction this past summer, he was widely derided by mainstream media talkingheads. Now, months later, no one is panning Trump for it — they’re feverishly attempting to strip him of receiving any credit. Such is Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Now that vaccines have been developed, when can Americans anticipate life returning to (somewhat) normal? According to the chief of Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, “That is likely to happen in the month of May or something like that, based on our plans.” However, much of that depends on Americans’ willingness to receive the vaccine. Slaoui pointedly noted, “I really hope and look forward to seeing that the level of negative perception of the vaccine decreases and people’s acceptance increases. That is going to be critical to help us. Most people need to be immunized before we can go back to normal life.”

To reach the accepted levels of vaccination to reach herd immunity, it would require 70% of the U.S. population becoming immunized. Slaoui says that by December 11 or 12, “hopefully, the first people will be immunized across the United States, across all states in all the areas where the state departments of health will have told us where to deliver the vaccines.”

This news couldn’t come at a better time as coronavirus numbers are spiking across the country, threatening to overwhelm hospitals and reverse the trend of a declining COVID death rate. As The Wall Street Journal reports, “Death rates can change depending on the availability of health-care resources, such as hospital beds and staffing in an area. That, along with the location’s patient demographics, explains why rates vary from place to place.”

In any case, the public-private partnership — primarily in terms of removing regulatory roadblocks — is one of Trump’s great achievements. It’s incredibly regrettable, outrageous even, that he has received so little credit.