The November elections are coming up soon, 179,000 people have died of the coronavirus, the economy is wrecked, Trump is trailing Biden in virtually every poll, and he desperately needs a miracle to make people believe that he can do something to stop the coronavirus carnage.
So, instead of doing the hard things like providing nationwide testing, contact tracing, providing medical equipment for doctors and nurses, encouraging the wearing of masks and working closely with state governments, Trump simply looks for a miracle.
The first miracle was supposed to the the sudden and painless disappearance of the virus. Back in the spring, when the virus was just taking hold of the nation, he assured us that “someday, it will just disappear.” It didn’t. It just got worse and worse.
Then there was the wondrous hydroxychloroquine, a drug long used to treat malaria that “seemed” to have some effectiveness in fighting the coronavirus. But it didn’t. And not one reputable test could show that it did.
Donald Trump really wanted hydroxychloroquine to be the miracle drug that would save him from the coronavirus. He even claimed that he took it as a prophylactic himself. But after Dr. Anthony Fauci just last month emphasized that studies had consistently showed that drug had no efficacy in the treating the coronavirus, he had to find another miracle cure.
And of course, he found it. Or rather Mike Lindell, TV pitchman and major Trump supporter, found it for him. It is the all natural, no dangerous side effects botanical extract known as - oleandrin. But there is no scientific evidence that it works to control the coronavirus, even though Mike Lindell swears that it will.
Then there was the Convalescent Plasma treatment, taking the antibodies from the blood of people who had survived infection, and using them to treat people who had the coronavirus. But, even though this kind of treatment has been around for a long time, there are no solid scientific studies to prove that it is effective for treating the coronavirus.
When Donald Trump said that, “doesn’t take responsibility at all” he was telling us the truth. Instead of doing the hard work of changing behavior (social distancing, wearing a mask, avoiding large gathering, enduring lock downs) Trump just keeps hoping for a quick, easy, painless solution.
The most disturbing thing about Trump’s desperate attempts to latch on to some wonder drug to save him from the hell of electoral defeat is his continued and heartless indifference to whether that drug works and whether or not it is safe. He just doesn’t care about these things.
And why should he? If there are any questions about whether or not the drug works, or if it may kill the patient, it doesn’t affect him. After all, he’s president of the United States - he has the entire federal government and all its people and all its resources to make sure nobody infects him, that he never becomes sick. He’s never going to need to risk taking that drug. If someone else dies because the wonder drug didn’t work, or because of BAD side effects, well, too bad for them. HE DOESN’T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! And, THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS!
I believe that what Trump is really counting on is a vaccine, which I think he is pushing to be approved and on the market before the November election. This is like the ultimate magic bullet for Trump: just get the vaccine out there and everything is magically ok. Then Trump can take the credit for saving the nation from the coronavirus.
Vaccines, ones that are established by good scientific investigation and rigorously tested in proper studies for safety and efficacy, do work. But who will believe that a vaccine, rushed to the market and appearing just before the election, is safe and effective? There are already many, many anti vaxxers who won’t take even well established and long used vaccines right now, believing all kinds fears that those vaccines actually hurt the users. And if hydroxychloroquine won’t work, and oleandrin won’t work, or worse, if they actually make you sicker, why should anybody a new coronavirus vaccine. Who will, or should, trust Trump’s assurance that the new coronavirus vaccine will protect them when he has made so many obviously phony promises about other cures?
For vaccines to work enough people must take them. And if enough don’t then the vaccine just won’t work. And then where will we bee? A nation that has to continually struggle with disease that subsides and then rips through us again and again, in the same terrible way that the polio virus used to do?
There are cures, but no fantasy cures. And there is no substitute for take responsibility for a problem or shrinking from the hard work of overcoming it.
If this is what you want, vote for the democrats in November. Up and down the whole ballot.