Dr. Anthony Fauci is sending a warning: Donald Trump’s refusal to admit he lost could seriously damage the effort to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines that now appear to be coming soon. Moderna and Pfizer have both announced very promising early data on phase 3 trials of their vaccines, which means that distribution could begin under Trump weeks before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated. In a Sunday CNN interview, Fauci compared it to a relay race, saying what’s needed is “passing of the baton without stopping running.” Monday, after the Moderna news, he again stressed the importance of a smooth transition as a matter of public health.
“The vaccines are effective. We want to get it approved as quickly as we possibly can. We want to get doses to people starting in December, and then we want to really get the ball rolling as we get into January, February and March," Fauci said on Today. "We want a smooth process with that and the way you do that is by essentially having the two groups speak to each other and exchange information.”
Trump’s petulance, and his underlings catering to that petulance, are creating the conditions for a very rocky transition that could affect how quickly vaccines are distributed. That matters, as Fauci explained: “The virus is not going to stop and call a time out while things change. The virus is just going to keep going. The process is just going to keep going.”
But Team Trump is digging in. General Service Administration (GSA) Head Emily Murphy is refusing to start the formal transition process, and other top Trump officials are using that as the excuse they wanted to block cooperation, even at the cost of human life.
“Once GSA determines that there is—if there is—a transition to do, we will ensure it’s cooperative and professional,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Good Morning America. “But right now the American people should be reassured that we’re moving ahead in collaboration with all of our states and local authorities to make sure the vaccine distribution works well.”
No, jackass! The American people should be reassured that you’re moving ahead with a professional transition to make sure there’s a smooth handoff of the vaccine distribution process in just over two months!
Following their leader, the top officials in the federal government really do not care if they cause people to die by holding up the vaccination process in the pandemic they allowed to rage out of control. This should be prosecuted as a crime—as two kinds of crime, actually: the crime against democracy by refusing to honor the results of the election, and the crime against human life by weakening the coronavirus response.