Trump is a lousy poker player. He said today that he thinks a COVID vaccine will be ready by November 3. Nothing says "rookie" like tipping your hand.
I figured his October surprise was going to be one of two things - either announcing the vaccine is ready, or having Barr indict Hunter, and possibly Joe Biden, on bogus charges. He might still do both.
If and when he announces that a vaccine has been developed, do not believe him without confirmation from actual scientists - and not that whacko from Houston who believes in "demon seed". He will lie about anything and everything. Unless we see the likes of Fauci and Birx saying, "Yes, we have a vaccine that works", it's not real, it's just more Trumpian gaslighting.
The clinical trials are going OK, but they are maddingly slow because of the way they have to be done. The volunteer participants are given either the vaccine or a placebo, and then released to live their normal lives. There's no guarantee that they will ever be exposed to the actual virus - all we know for sure is that the vaccine itself is not killing anyone.
Oxford University wants to do a "challenge trial", in which volunteers get the vaccine and are then subjected to a controlled dose of the virus to see what happens. Obviously, there are all sorts of ethical questions raised, but so far about 30,000 people have signed up for a chance to get one of the 50 or slots that will be available for what could be a suicide mission.
Either way, the chances of a viable, safe vaccine that will be ready and available for distribution prior to Election Day are slim and none. Don't be fooled by what you'll be told. At best, we're probably looking at early 2021, and then we have to fight with the anti-vaxxers...
Anyone who thinks this all goes away on November 4 is as delusional as Trump is. Magic thinking never works. The 160,000 dead Americans - which will probably be 200,000 or more by Election Day - would tell you that if they could. |
