Over the Christmas holiday, Donald Trump delivered lumps of coal into his anti-vaccine supporters’ stockings by proudly announcing that he received his booster shot of the COVID vaccine.
(yeah, I know, I’m sorry, I’ll show myself out)
Watch the full clip below, where Trump not only shushed his detractors but also encouraged the crowd to “not let them take this from us”, meaning the success of Operation Warp Speed.
In all fairness, Trump is correct here. Operation Warp Speed pulled off an impossible feat in bringing a COVID vaccine to market in nine months. Under normal circumstances, we’d still be waiting for the FDA to approve a single version of the vaccine, with no firm approval date in sight. Trump saying that his administration saved the lives of tens of millions of people isn’t hyperbole and he’s well within his rights to point that out and encourage his supporters to also say it loud and proud.
From a medical perspective, it makes sense for Trump to get a booster shot. He’s in a high-risk category – he’s elderly and overweight, and those are the comorbidities we know about. Despite having contacted COVID and receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, it makes sense for him to take every precaution available to avoid becoming reinfected. Plus, the COVID vaccine is Trump’s greatest accomplishment while in office, it wouldn’t make much sense for him to not take advantage of what he made happen.
His anti-vaccine supporters…well…they don’t see it that way.
In a rather amusing juxtaposition, here’s Alex Jones threatening to expose Trump as a liar and an evil man during his very festive-looking Christmas Day broadcast.
The person taking it hardest however is Candace Owens, who is coping with Trump’s pro-vaccine stance by…actually no, I’m going to let you enjoy the video without a preamble.
Owens recorded that video after her interview with Trump where he corrected her implication that the vaccines are ineffective, stating that the vaccine protects against contracting COVID and that if one does contract the illness while vaccinated that the symptoms are much milder and hospitalization is typically not necessary. He also correctly pointed out that it is unvaccinated patients that are being hospitalized and dying from COVID.
Jones and Owens are hardly alone in their criticism of Trump’s new pro-vaccine stance. As Owens mentioned, the shock and anger are coming from all levels of the conservative movement, from big-ticket donors to random social media posters. Being anti-vaccine has become part and parcel of the conservative movement, with politicians jockeying to see who can be the most incendiary anti-vaccine personality on Twitter. And that’s the elected officials – being anti-vaccine is the path to fame and fortune and quite a few conservative commentators have figured that out.
The question that has been floating around in both conservative and progressive circles is “why now”? While Trump has never been anti-vaccine, he chose to not be photographed receiving his vaccinations and has refused to participate in any promotions encouraging people to get vaccinated. He certainly hasn’t addressed the anti-vaccine mood within his supporter base before his recent comments. So what changed?
Duh. He’s running in 2024 and this is proof.
Re-Election 101 states that when a politician is running for re-election, they highlight the successes of their previous term. Operation Warp Speed is the only uncontested win of Trump’s presidential term, and it’s a win that probably changed the course of human history. There aren’t too many politicians running for re-election that can say “my efforts saved tens to hundreds of millions of lives.” Why would he not highlight an achievement like that, even if it is for his own purposes?
Here is the bind that Trump has created for himself, however; it’s too little too late. His base is livid and I think there is a good chance they would support an anti-vaccine candidate over him in 2024. Any goodwill he may bank from taking a pro-vaccination stance now would have to go into paying off the damage he did during his presidency and that his supporters have done since he left office. Had he taken this stance publicly from the beginning much of the self-inflicted damage he faces could have been avoided, but he didn’t and now I don’t think that damage can be undone. Hell, I’d argue that he did even more damage to himself by coming out as pro-vaccination now instead of staying relatively quiet as he had done previously.
I doubt he’s going to change many hearts and minds at this point but I’ll give him credit for finally full-throatily supporting the vaccines he made possible. Why he didn’t do this sooner and salvage something of his legacy, I’ll never know.
>>Operation Warp Speed pulled off an impossible feat in bringing a COVID vaccine to market in nine months.<<
Not just that (and this wasn't actually his doing), but a wholly unproven-at-scale technology (mRNA) basically came in and kicked the asses of every other existing vaccine platform in terms of ramping up and inoculating the masses. Sure, J&J actually got doses out the door, likewise AstraZenica, and Russian Sputnik. But all those to some degree were counting on Indian manufacturing prowess (via the Serum Institute) that got summarily slammed shut the moment India had a flareup. Moderna had never had an at-scale product before. Pfizer had never made an mRNA product in those quantities.
We're witnessing a scientific and technological miracle.
He got booed a several months back when he told a crowd in Alabama that they should get the jab. A lot of people are too invested in being anti-vax. Same for the pro-mask crowd.