The aged among us may remember a time, many moons ago, when American society embarked on a 15-day quest to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “15 Day To Slow The Spread” was the motto, the marching orders, though we weren’t really marching so much as sitting in our homes, hiding under our beds. Still, they said, the main thing is to steer clear of other people, practice social distancing, and, oh, whatever you do, don’t wear a mask, you dumb rubes. But 15 days came and went. Then they said that we may have to stay locked down until Easter. After that end date proved not to be an end of anything, they said a month. Then two months. And somewhere in there, they decided that you should wear a mask, you dumb rubes. Not only should you wear it, but if you don’t wear the thing they had just told you not to bother wearing, you are a barbarian, a murderer, and unfit for civilized society.
The goal posts kept moving. The lockdowns “ended” but many stifling restrictions were kept in place, and are still in place, from mask mandates to capacity limits at restaurants and other businesses. People like New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told us that the “ultimate resolution” wouldn’t arrive until we have a vaccine. Some of the most optimistic and naive among us may have thought that “until there’s a vaccine” was the last goalpost shift, the last “wait, never mind” we would get. But, no. There is infinite space in which to maneuver these goal posts. It seems they can be moved and shifted indefinitely, for all eternity. Which brings us to its latest positioning.
Cuomo, who consigned many thousands of elderly in his state to death by sending infected patients into nursing homes, and who then, even while the pandemic is still happening, decided to write a book bragging about his stellar leadership throughout the ongoing crisis, has now become the latest Democrat to tell us that the vaccine may not resolve anything because we might not be able to trust it. Speaking to George Stephanopoulos, Cuomo said:
“You’re going to say to the American people, ‘Here’s this vaccine. It’s new. It was done quickly. But trust this federal administration and their health administration that it’s safe’? And we’re not 100 percent sure of the consequences? I think it’s going to be a very skeptical American public about taking the vaccine, and they should be… You’re going to need someone other than this FDA and this CDC saying it’s safe… The CDC and the FDA doesn’t have any credibility.”
Cuomo added that, in light of any future vaccine, he will establish his own panel of “experts” to review it and give the okay. But without his guiding hand, Americans ought to be “very skeptical” because, he says, the CDC and FDA have no credibility at all. This is relatively in keeping with what many other Democrats have said on the issue, though Cuomo is a bit more direct in his shameless politicization of vaccines.
There was a time, of course, when everything in the above quote from Governor Cuomo would have been dismissed by people like Cuomo as anti-vax conspiracy mongering. But now we can hear this sort of thing from the same guy who has lectured us relentlessly about the importance of believing the science and trusting the experts.
For my part, I certainly will not go to bat to defend the integrity and dignity of the CDC. But if Cuomo now believes that the CDC, the FDA, and the other alleged public health experts in government who pushed the lockdowns and mask mandates in the first place, have zero credibility and cannot be trusted, why shouldn’t we tear off our masks and go about our day as normal? Or is it that we should trust implicitly only those experts which Governor Cuomo, in his omniscience, as deemed worthy of the honor?
There are perfectly valid questions you could raise about a potential vaccine that is rushed through and given to the public in record time. Usually these things take years. A hypothetical vaccine that is developed and disseminated in mere months could draw entirely justified skepticism. But that’s not really Cuomo’s point, when you cut through the fluff and rhetoric. For Cuomo and many other Democrats, this is solely about Donald Trump.
When asked if he will take a vaccine as soon as it’s available, Joe Biden has repeatedly answered that he “trusts science” and “trust vaccines” but doesn’t trust Donald Trump. Well, what does Donald Trump have to do with anything? Trump isn’t the one working on the vaccine. He isn’t conducting the tests. He won’t be the one deciding if it’s ready to be given to the public. To say “I trust vaccines but not one that is rushed” is very different from saying “I trust vaccines but not one that is given to us while Donald Trump is in office.” Cuomo, Biden, and company are taking the approach, which makes one wonder: what if Trump wins re-election? What if Trump gets four more years in office and a vaccine is released in, say, May, or next November, or any time during his second term? Will Democrats discourage people from taking the vaccine for four years, just to avoid giving Trump the credit?
I wish I could call such a possibility unthinkable. But nothing is unthinkable these days.
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The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.