There will be a vaccine or vaccines. They were on the way with a SARS vaccine, when the virus petered out… due to masks, sequestering in China, in particular, etc. The first ones out of the block might not be fully preventative for many people, but they will be very likely to reduce the severity of the disease if one catches it.
Will such a vaccine help save Trump, if it comes out before the election? That’s difficult to say. It’s doubtful whether the manufacturers would risk distributing a vaccine that would be ineffective. But Trump will no doubt push to waive any sort of liability on the part of the manufacturers. In exchange for that, all information on development and testing should be 100% open source.
Being young definitely aids in fighting off an active infection, but there is zero indication that it helps prevent infection from occurring. It’s great that many of the protesters are wearing masks, but far too many of them are not. I expect a significant spike in cases in a couple weeks.
Well, that’s one way to cull the herd. tRump will want to pack them in like sardines to prove he still can attract the most racist, xenophobic, bigoted bunch of assholes in the country.
["The rallies that Trump plans to re-start will negate any ad buys Team Trump makes.
Then there is the problem associated with a guaranteed COVID uptick and risk in any city and state the rallies occur.
Not to mention the logistical and financial burdens the rallies will engender.
In addition, whether groupies or home-grown fanatics, rally-goers will be living COVID vectors for localities all over the country.
Finally, staging these rallies (which are akin to putting a torch to every falsehood preached by Team Trump during the inaptly-named Trump COVID Task Force Pressers) gives an exclamation point to a scream that Trump does not give a Damn about the American People, Trumpists or not."]
McDaniel knows what this will cause. That makes her crazier than Trump.
What they’re basically counting on is that, since restrictions are being relaxed and, heck, just look at the protests going on, nobody would be able to pinpoint the source of an outbreak by that time.
I think there is a fair amount of truth to that, but it’s not the whole story. Here in Dallas County, we locked down fairly hard and fairly early, and I don’t think there is much question that prevented things from getting out of hand. Public activity is still way, way down from before this started, despite our malignant governor overruling our county authorities as of May 1 and opening the whole damn state uniformly. As a result, our daily new case numbers have gone up to 200+ for the last couple weeks, with daily deaths mostly in the single digits. The trend looks to me like that’s just where things are going to stay, more or less, for the duration with the current level of precautions.
On June 1, Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Tex.) introduced the Climate Change and Hurricane Correlation and Strategy Act, a bill that explicitly prohibits the president, along with any other federal agency or official, from employing a nuclear bomb or other “strategic weapon” with the goal of “altering weather patterns or addressing climate change.”
In a phone interview, Garcia told The Washington Post that the bill was drafted as a direct response to last year’s report that Trump has floated the idea of nuking hurricanes to his senior homeland security and national security advisers. Trump denied ever making such a suggestion in a tweet shortly after Axios published its report.
But the presence of masks on nearly all the protesters juxtaposed with MAGA , unmasked fanatics cheering loudly for an unmasked Criminal (Trump) may tip it the other way.
Then there’s Trump himself…a walking, talking Democratic campaign ad.
I want a return to something like normal so badly, that I don’t care if a safe and effective vaccine is developed early enough for Trump to co-opt it for his campaign. If it happens (and it’s very unlikely), he’ll claim he did it all by himself, but it won’t help him.
I think we’re reaching a point where everyone planning to vote knows who they’re voting for in November. The votes are baked into the cake. Trump will lose by a significant margin; enough to shut down any claims that the election was rigged. I’m trying very hard not to be over-optimistic, but there are too many objective signs pointing to a historic defeat for Trump in November. With or without a vaccine.
Forgive the morbid humor but… This whole cluster f@#k of a republican party reminds me of the old joke that explains the difference between ‘involved’ and ‘committed’… Think of it in terms of a breakfast of ham and eggs. The chicken is involved but the pig is committed. Does Trump really expect his base to commit to a literal suicide pact in order to support him?
As Trump starts down this road, I hope he shows his mutual commitment to his base by working the rope line up close and personal (sans ppe, of course). And if he doesn’t, let’s hope that the news media makss a big deal out of his lack of commitment.
Oh, for lots of other reasons, the rallies aren’t going to go well for him (I expect the counter-protests outside will be bigger than anything he gets together at this point). Just won’t be covid specifically, especially now that the dam has broken and we’ve got people literally flooding the streets.
