LA Times: It's time to get tough on COVID vaccine evaders
Last summer, when a new, deadly wave of COVID-19 infections gripped the nation, the only solace during that dark time was that a vaccine seemed possible, if not probable, within the year. It was the light in the proverbial tunnel, as distant and weak as it may have appeared at the moment.
We should have reached the end of the tunnel by now, thanks to amazing feats of science and government that developed and mass produced several COVID-19 vaccines in record time. Yet it's still agonizingly far away because of falling demand for the abundant and free shots, despite pleas and cash giveaways to nudge vaccine holdouts. Efforts to educate skeptics about the undeniable benefits of the vaccines must continue, and the social media platforms need to do a better job at cracking down on deliberate misinformation that serves solely to stir up confusion and doubt about the vaccines or worse.
But meanwhile, the highly contagious Delta variant is driving a scary resurgence of COVID-19 infections across the nation. Cases have risen so quickly in Los Angeles County over the last week that the public health department reinstated the indoor mask mandate for everyone regardless of vaccination status.
Making matters worse are the Republican commentators, activists and lawmakers who have taken an antagonistic position on vaccines rather than celebrating them as the triumph of the one pandemic initiative for which the former president deserves legitimate bragging rights.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/editorial-time-tough-covid-vaccine-100031244.html
Skittles
(153,150 posts)ANY fucking president would have warp-speeded a vaccine during a pandemic - it's like we have to give Trump credit for the one time he ACTUALLY DID HIS JOB.
littlemissmartypants
(22,632 posts)
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES
NOVEMBER 18, 2020
Ivanka Trump Praises Her Dad for Vaccine Research Started Under Obama
Dave Gilson
...snip
Moderna did get started on its COVID vaccine on January 13, two days after China released the virus genetic sequence. A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission explains that on that date, the companys researchers finalized the sequence for the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and it mobilized toward clinical manufacture. That step was taken in collaboration with the Vaccine Research Center, which is under the National Institutes for Health (NIH). Even if Trump wasnt personally involved, cant he take credit for his administrations role in this moment?
Its not that simple. Modernas partnership with the feds to develop messenger RNA technology, which its coronavirus vaccine is based on, began long before the novel coronavirus flared up. The Pentagon funded the companys mRNA research in 2013, and the federal government gave it $125 million to develop a mRNA-based Zika vaccine in 2016. Its COVID-related work on January 13 appears to have been completed under an already existing research agreement with the NIH, according to a review by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.
In short, Trump didnt swoop in to launch the Moderna-NIH COVID vaccine partnership. Rather, his administration piggybacked on an ongoing collaboration whose initial agreements were signed inchecking the fine printNovember 2015.
https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/11/ivanka-trump-moderna-vaccine-trump/
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Well, not quite yet. But the COVID work may re-invigorate this effort.