Why his brand is toxic for a vaccine

[struggle4progress]

Today 7:00 AM
By Star-Ledger Editorial Board

... “People in the anti-vaxxer movement are currently lying about vaccines we use year after year, to great effect,” he says. “Can you imagine if there’s any sense that this vaccine is rushed onto the stage for political purposes, in light of the upcoming election?” ...

... the CDC changed its guidelines to say that asymptomatic people don’t need to be tested for COVID, despite clear evidence that they can be super-spreaders – reportedly because Trump doesn’t want the case count to keep going up. It doesn’t inspire confidence.

Neither does Trump’s hyping of unproven treatments for the virus, and repeated attempts to arm-twist his Food and Drug Administration chief, Steve Hahn. He did an emergency approval for hydroxychloroquine, then revoked it after reports that the drug was associated with serious heart problems ...

Now Trump is suggesting, with zero evidence, that the FDA is part of a “deep state” plot to slow-walk a vaccine’s release, in order to hurt his election prospects – and calling Hahn out by name. What could possibly go wrong? ...

https://www.nj.com/opinion/2020/09/why-the-trump-brand-is-toxic-for-a-vaccine-editorial.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Voters grow wary

By William Goldschlag
Updated September 7, 2020 3:13 AM

With 189,000 dead from the coronavirus in the U.S. and forecasts the toll could more than double by year's end, a safe and effective vaccine would seem to be an answer to the nation's prayer. But trust is eroding, with President Donald Trump openly agitating health officials to either have an approved vaccine by Election Day or be able to show that one is imminent.

A CBS News poll asked voters what their first thought would be if there is a vaccine this year. Barely more than a third — 35% — said they'd think of it as "scientific achievement." The other 65% said they would think it's "rushed through."

The percentage of those who would get the vaccine as soon as one becomes available has dropped from 32% in July to 21% now. Those who would consider getting the vaccine but would wait to see what happens rose from 51% to 58%. Those who say they'll never get one increased from 17% to 21%.

By 47% to 34%, more voters would trust Joe Biden than Trump to make sure a safe vaccine is available, while 14% said they wouldn't trust either. Three-quarters of voters say whoever wins the presidential election should publicly take the vaccine to show that it's safe ...

https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-coronavirus-vaccine-dejoy-anita-hill-endorses-biden-polls-harris-trump-boat-parade-atlantic-report-war-dead-1.49039820

[Thekaspervote]

6. +1000

[struggle4progress]

2. Coronavirus delusions risk corrupting the search for a vaccine

Analysis by Gregory Krieg, CNN
Updated 1:29 PM ET, Sun September 6, 2020

... widespread distribution of a dodgy vaccine, with a shove from a President whose reelection campaign has been laid low by the pandemic and its crushing effect on the economy, would heap calamity on top of catastrophe. But it has emerged as a very real concern -- enough so that, according to the Wall Street Journal, at least three of the companies working to develop a coronavirus vaccine are now drafting a pledge to assure the public they would not seek approval for their vaccines before they are proven safe and effective ...

That pressure-packed environment has already exposed potential cracks in the Food and Drug Administration's armor of supposed independence. After dramatically overstating the therapeutic benefits of convalescent plasma -- which is donated by people who have recovered from Covid-19 -- two weeks ago, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn subsequently apologized for using a misleading statistic ...

It wasn't the first time the FDA was forced to backtrack after giving substantive backing to a dubious coronavirus therapy. In June, the agency revoked an "emergency use authorization" for hydroxychloroquine, a Trump favorite that studies suggest is likely to do more harm than help, after the FDA determined the anti-malaria drug is "unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19" ...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/06/politics/donald-trump-election-2020-coronavirus-vaccine/index.html

[struggle4progress]

3. Pre-Election Goal for a Vaccine Has States on Edge

By John Tozzi
September 4, 2020, 10:00 AM EDT
Updated on September 4, 2020, 12:42 PM EDT

... Days after the federal government told states to prepare for distributing a vaccine as early as Nov. 1, the group representing state public-health leaders said any vaccine approval must be insulated from political motives and driven by science.

“We want the safety and efficacy to be demonstrated,” Rachel Levine, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in an interview Thursday. Levine is Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, and the group represents top health officials and departments around the country.

“State health officials strongly encourage the FDA to complete phase 3 trials or some other very rigorous evaluation prior to approving a vaccine,” Levine said ...

Since the early days of Covid-19’s arrival in the U.S., the Trump administration promoted a response it has called “locally executed, state managed, and federally supported.” But state and local health leaders say they’ve frequently been sidelined in the response, learning of new developments only when the general public does ...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-04/state-health-officials-caution-feds-not-to-rush-covid-vaccine

[struggle4progress]

4. Rush for a covid vaccine could make it less likely to work

By Jennifer Reich and Seth Masket
September 4, 2020 at 10:45 a.m. EDT

President Trump clearly sees the coronavirus pandemic as a threat to his reelection and wants to show that he is making progress against it. He promised at the Republican National Convention to “produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” boasting: “Nobody thought it could be done this fast. Normally it would be years, and we did it in a matter of a few months. We are producing them in advance so hundreds of millions of doses can be quickly available. We have a safe and effective vaccine this year, and together we will crush the virus.”

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to allow a vaccine against the coronavirus to be used on an emergency basis before its formal approval process is finished, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told states to be ready to distribute doses by Nov. 1 — two days before the election.

But wanting a vaccine to be ready by the time the polls open and getting one that is safe, effective and accepted by the American people are two very different things. And the Trump administration’s attempts to make government agency leaders support the president’s political positions this year have undermined public trust in the very institutions needed to evaluate and distribute the immunizations. Now the same impulses that have led Trump to downplay the virus and latch onto imagined miracle cures could also get in the way of an effective vaccine.

Trump is right that the creation and mass distribution of a vaccine within a year of the discovery of the disease it prevents would be unprecedented — most vaccines take years to develop, test and administer. That typical time frame isn’t due to lack of effort. Long-standing scientific protocols require a great deal of testing over a long period to ensure that a vaccine is safe, with minimal side effects, if any; and effective, meaning it actually stops the disease, limits its spread or reduces its severity. Short-circuiting that process can be wasteful or even dangerous: A rushed vaccine for the swine flu in 1976 meant to help President Gerald Ford’s election campaign not only proved ineffective but also afflicted hundreds with a paralyzing side effect ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-covid-vaccine-science/2020/09/04/5c22d02a-ee33-11ea-ab4e-581edb849379_story.html

[RockRaven]

5. At this point, if I were a vaccine manufacturer, I would not want to seek approval

for my vaccine during Trump's tenure.

[smirkymonkey]

7. The kiss of death.

Probably figuratively and literally. More testing is needed. It's far too early to roll out an effective vaccine.