Not content material to let Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. get all of the credit score for undermining the security and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and rendering everybody completely confused as to who nonetheless qualifies for the shot, President Donald Trump determined to weigh in on the hot-button situation.
You’ll not be stunned to be taught that this didn’t make issues any higher. On Sunday, over on Reality Social, Trump lamented that the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention is being “ripped apart” over the query of COVID vaccine security. Type of an odd grievance coming from the one who appointed Kennedy, whose whole cause for existence relies on eliminating vaccines based mostly on unhinged conspiracy theories. What, precisely, did Trump anticipate?
The genius within the Oval Workplace claims the actual downside is that drug firms have by no means proven the general public that the vaccines are secure.
“I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???” he blathered. “They go off to the next ‘hunt’ and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work.”
Associated | RFK Jr. is so mad that actual docs don’t should take heed to him
There’s an terrible lot to unpack right here. Trump appears to be saying that he, and he alone, has been proven info from Pfizer concerning the security of the vaccine. Couldn’t Trump simply present it to the remainder of us? And so far as the grievance that Kennedy and the CDC can’t determine if the vaccine was successful, have they thought-about taking a look at actually any scientific knowledge?
Maybe poor beleaguered Bobby Kennedy Jr. might begin with, say, taking a look at knowledge revealed over on the Nationwide Library of Drugs. That might be fairly handy, provided that it’s hosted on the web site of the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, an company that simply occurs to be a part of HHS, overseen by one Bobby Kennedy.
Right here’s a complete overview of the unwanted effects and efficacy of 4 completely different COVID vaccines. Right here’s a CDC web page about vaccine reactions and adversarial occasions for Pfizer’s vaccine. Right here’s one on evaluating booster doses. Right here’s a prolonged web page on the CDC’s web site discussing 13 completely different vaccine security research and helpfully summarizing the extent of vaccine effectiveness in tables in order that Trump wouldn’t have to really learn something.
However wait, you may say. These are simply research, not one thing straight from Pfizer. Doesn’t Pfizer owe us all an evidence, hmm? Effectively, for the layperson, Pfizer’s web site has in depth debunking of misinformation concerning the security of its COVID-19 vaccine, a factor they might not have to do if individuals like Kennedy weren’t at present overseeing the CDC. Or head on over to Pfizer’s medical trials web page and search by “Comirnaty,” the identify of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. You’ll get a listing of all their trials with hyperlinks the place you may obtain all of the research knowledge … hyperlinks which might be additionally helpfully obtainable on, you guessed it, the federal government’s personal medical trials web site. Listed below are Moderna’s medical trials, a few of that are nonetheless energetic.
The issue for Trump is that he was president for many of Operation Warp Velocity, the huge public-private effort that led to the event of COVID-19 vaccines far faster than anticipated. Trump ate that up, bragging in December 2020 that “Before Operation Warp Speed, the typical timeframe for development and approval, as you know, could be infinity. And we were very, very happy that we were able to get things done at a level that nobody has ever seen before. The gold standard vaccine has been done in less than nine months.”
Since Trump likes the legacy of being the quickest and bestest, he can’t actually throw out the entire concept of COVID-19 vaccines the best way true anti-vax conspiracists like Kennedy can. So, it must be the fault of nefarious pharma firms that lied to the federal government or hid all their dangerous vaccine outcomes.
“They show me GREAT numbers and results, but they don’t seem to be showing them to many others,” he claimed. “I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was.”
Trump can’t have it each methods, however he’s definitely going to strive. Even he is aware of that issues should not trying good for Kennedy or the CDC proper now. The firing of Susan Monarez, who Trump himself nominated for CDC director however who Kennedy later discovered insufficiently unhinged concerning vaccine conspiracies, was a haphazard mess. Precise medical professionals hold coming ahead to clarify that folks do truly nonetheless have to get the COVID-19 vaccine, main Kennedy to declare that pediatricians are all within the pocket of Massive Pharma.
One way or the other, it doesn’t look like this will likely be fastened by Pfizer sending Trump medical trial outcomes, provided that the person received’t even learn a one-page memo. A minimum of we’ll get to observe each Trump and Kennedy step on rake after rake, however that’s chilly consolation with out widespread entry to lifesaving, obligatory vaccines.
