Against all the odds — and certainly against the assertions of the legacy media and their cherry-picked “experts” — Donald Trump and his administration helped deliver two COVID-19 vaccines in record time. The FDA has now approved both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines for emergency use, with an immunization program rolling out nationwide.
Breezing past this unprecedented and — by their own definition — miraculous achievement, the legacy media have instead pivoted to accept that vaccines were inevitable, and have now focused their attention on vaccine skepticism.
The New York Times ran a piece titled “The Vaccines Are Coming. A Divided and Distrustful America Awaits.” Many Democrats are rushing to try and place any blame for any anti-vaccine rhetoric (whether mild or inflammatory) squarely at the feet of Trump and the Republican party.
However, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, it is actually Democrats who are 30% “more likely than Republicans to be worried about the speed of vaccine development (90% vs 60%).” Not only that, between the month of July and November, “Democrats’ desire to get vaccinated for COVID-19 dropped from 60% to 43%.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t rational or irrational COVID-19 vaccine skeptics on the right. It does mean, however, contrary to what the Democrats and their legacy media now say, that such skeptics are also on the ‘pro-science’ left.
And why is this? Well, to repackage Barack Obama’s inane 2012 quote, “they built that.” Here is a list of high ranking Democrats who actively fueled vaccine skepticism for political purposes.
Kamala Harris
Perhaps most infamously of all, Kamala Harris was widely criticized after her interview with CNN’s Dana Bash where she implied that the approval and safety of a COVID-19 vaccine would be impacted by Trump. Harris claimed — without evidence — that “public health experts and scientists” would be “muzzled,” “suppressed,” and “sidelined.”
Her reasoning? Trump is “looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days and he’s grasping for whatever he can get to pretend that he has been a leader on this issue.” When asked by Bash if she would get the vaccine if it was approved, Harris grinned and said “I would not trust Donald Trump.”
BASH: “Let's just say there is a vaccine that is approved and even distributed before the election. Would you get it?"
HARRIS: “I would not trust Donald Trump… I will not take his word for it."pic.twitter.com/7NIp1F8WkB
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 5, 2020
Vice President Mike Pence slammed Harris for her cynical political tactics during their debate in October, calling her decisions “unconscionable,” and asking Harris to “stop playing politics with people’s lives.”
Vice President @Mike_Pence: "The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if a vaccine emerges during the @realDonaldTrump Administration, I think is unconscionable. Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people’s lives."#VPDebate pic.twitter.com/MXMGvQ3DIa
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 8, 2020
Joe Biden
Harris’ running mate, Joe Biden, was slightly more careful with his language. However, repeated statements had the same goal — to undermine confidence in the vaccine should it be delivered by a Trump administration.
Speaking in September, Biden asked listeners “who’s going to take the shot?” Continuing, he then asked “you going to be the first one to say ‘put me, sign me up, they now say it’s OK?’” For those who would dismiss this as standard Biden carelessness, he ended with “I’m not being facetious.”
Joe Biden is ignoring Dr. Fauci and other experts and deliberately trying to undermine confidence in the coronavirus vaccine here.
Legit question from this: does Biden believe Americans shouldn't get the vaccine when its ready? pic.twitter.com/AgEGQeL3UE
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 4, 2020
Mimicking Harris’ “trust” strategy, Biden declared later that September that “I trust vaccines, I trust scientists, but I don’t trust Donald Trump.”
Andrew Cuomo
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has overseen the worst COVID-19 response in the country by far, was more direct when he encouraged his constituents to distrust the federal government on the subject of vaccine safety.
“Frankly, I’m not going to trust the federal government’s opinion,” Cuomo said, “and I wouldn’t recommend to New Yorkers based on the federal government’s opinion.”
The governor also said that New York state would have its own health officials screen any federally approved vaccine before its use.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he doesn't ‘trust the federal government's opinion’ on a safe COVID-19 vaccine, so New York State will set up a task force to conduct an independent review https://t.co/A8IjlEIZby pic.twitter.com/BeMtj8oTwW
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 24, 2020
Nancy Pelosi
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spread distrust for political gain, first by justifying doubts regarding the legitimacy of a vaccine unless it is approved by independent committees.
“Unless there is confidence that the vaccine has gone through the clinical trials, and then is approved by the independent scientific advisory committee, as established to do just this, there will be doubts that people will have.”
Then she sowed further distrust by saying — without evidence — that the United States may approve a vaccine simply because the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had done so.
“My concern is that the UK’s system for that kind of judgment is not on a par with ours in the United States. So if Boris Johnson decides he is going to approve a drug and this president embraces that, that is a concern that I have.”
Jay Inslee
Washington Governor Jay Inslee also tried to mimic Biden’s careful traversal of the line between “pro-science” and “anti-Trump” when he was asked whether he would be willing to take a vaccine released by the Trump administration.
“If all the protocols had been followed and the evidence is in, of course, I’d follow science. It doesn’t matter when it happens. But I would have to look at the science, not Donald Trump. There isn’t one single thing I would ever trust from Donald Trump to be true.”
Cal Cunningham
Cunningham, who lost to incumbent Republican Senator for North Carolina, Thom Tillis, on November 3rd, was perhaps the most blatant of all the Democrats who have expressed “concerns” regarding the vaccine, saying that he would be “hesitant” to receive a vaccine if it was approved “by the end of the year.”
Wow- Chuck Schumer's hand-picked Senate candidate in NC just told his state he wouldn't take a COVID-19 vaccine if it was approved by the FDA.
Insanely reckless and irresponsible. This will come back to haunt him. #NCsen pic.twitter.com/5Ld3PRmk5P
— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) September 14, 2020
***
Thanks to the legacy media, the left have an unquestionable grip on the definition of science. When it suits them, they blindly “follow the science.” When it doesn’t, science becomes another abstract political football which must be “wrestled back” from evil conservatives.
Outlets like the Washington Post will try and rewrite history, publishing an article saying that the “biggest obstacle to a broadly deployed coronavirus vaccine” is the “GOP base.”
Don’t forget. It was the “anti-science” GOP who helped delivered a vaccine in record time, and it was the “pro-science” left who were all too happy to undermine it.
Ian Haworth is host of The Ian Haworth Show and The Truth in 60 Seconds. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.