At times, one wonders whether Trump is actually taking orders directly from Putin or someone else trying to destroy this country. We have no direct proof of such, but some orders, some courses of action that are so contrary to the country’s well-being, make it almost impossible to conclude otherwise. Trump’s handling of purchasing the vaccines is but one example.

Months ago, prior to the end of the trials on the vaccines, Pfizer gave Trump and the United States, first right on buying an extra 100 million doses of the vaccine (the first order was for a similar amount). The deal was contingent upon the vaccine being approved as effective, so no one had to worry about buying a pig in a poke. Unbelievably, Trump turned down the opportunity to be first in line with a massive amount of vaccine. Again, there was no risk to saying “yes,” it would ensure the United States was the primary recipient of a massive quantity.

The White House’s excuse is that they thought more would be on the market from other areas, which makes no sense at all. So what? Who cares if there is more available in other areas, they would still have their extra 100 million doses (in a country of 330 million) and not need to worry about securing more from others.

George Stephanopolous asked the chief science officer for operation Warp Speed what could possibly be going on:

In an interview with “Goodmorning America,” Chief Science Adviser for Operation Warp Speed Dr. Moncef Slaoui was asked about the conflicting reports, but he didn’t have any answers.

“Frankly, I don’t know,” Slaoui said. “Frankly, I’m staying out of this. So, I can’t comment.”

GMA host George Stephanopoulos asked to clarify, “You don’t know? But you’re the chief science adviser for Operation Warp Speed.”

It sounds to us like he’s saying “I don’t know about why Trump would do it,” and thus “I am staying out of this,” and “I can’t comment because if I did I would likely say exactly what’s on my mind which would get me booted at a critical time.”

Trump figured out that he made a big mistake, so being the big all-powerful man he is, he believed he could fix it with the stroke of the pen: (More below including video)

Lol wow pic.twitter.com/IgKZxcNeNN

— Acyn (@Acyn) December 9, 2020

At Trump’s vaccine summit Tuesday, he signed an executive order stating that the United States would get the vaccine first before the U.S. helps any other country be vaccinated. The problem, however, is that the opposite is now true. Most other countries are getting the vaccine first because Trump messed up.

Yeah. That will happen. Executive orders are great when you’re ordering the executive branch employees to do something, some policy. They’re worth fck-all when it comes to private contracts with companies that already gave you the offer. Now we’re in the back of the line for the extra doses (we do get some upfront but not anywhere near enough and that’s it, then we’re waiting, it could be July before we get them). As said by former Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius:

This wasn’t like he had to buy something and then you have to throw it all away. If it didn’t work — this was a contingency financing. To turn down an additional 100 million doses and sign an order that means nothing. It doesn’t overturn contracts that pharmaceutical companies have with countries and the world. You get in line behind the contracts. I don’t care how many pieces of paper the president now signs, it doesn’t change the reality that we have some doses coming from Pfizer, but not nearly enough.”

So there you have it. These are the times one wonders whether Trump can even make decisions like this on his own, or whether someone who wants the U.S. weakened makes those decisions. That is complete speculation, but can you come up with an explanation for the actions of our “businessman president?”

“To have that extra doses would save potentially thousands and thousands of Americans,” Sebelius explained.

Chalk up a few tens of thousands of more lives lost to Trump’s stupidity or lack of freedom to do the right thing, take your pick. From the outside it often looks like … it doesn’t matter. The result is the same.

 

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak