The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Are health agencies tailoring virus response to help Trump’s reelection?
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged state departments of health to prepare for the possible distribution of a coronavirus vaccine before the Nov. 3 election.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is now bidding out a more than $250 million contract to a communications firm that will help “defeat despair and inspire hope” about the coronavirus pandemic with messaging before January.
These actions revealed by media this week have concerned Democrats and some health officials that the Trump administration is working to minimize the coronavirus with a particular goal at the forefront, the reelection of President Donald Trump.
Trump’s response coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly one of the biggest obstacles to his reelection. In a national poll released this week by Quinnipiac University, 56 percent of likely voters said Democrat Joe Biden would do a better job handling the coronavirus than President Donald Trump.
To date, over 186,000 Americans have died from the virus.
While I’ve interviewed many Republicans who say Trump has done the best he could with an unprecendented situation, many Democrats and independents are not so forgiving.
While Trump’s team applauds his work to implement international travel bans and steer ventilators and even hospital ships to hard-hit areas, many Democrats say it was too little, too late, when a quick, thorough response could have flattened the curve and saved lives.
The effort to airbrush Trump’s record on the coronavirus was evident during the Republican National Convention when the campaign played cherry-picked clips of Democratic governors praising the delivery of supplies to their states in some instances and when White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow spoke of the pandemic in the past tense.
When everyone would like this virus to be a thing of the past, we are certainly not there yet.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, who oversees funding for Health and Human Services, demanded that HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday provide details on the communications bid and its potential “political motivations.” She asked for any correspondence between the Trump campaign and HHS related to the contract.
“While I strongly support public health advertising based in science and facts, any taxpayer-funded advertising campaign must be led and coordinated by our nation’s foremost public health experts — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — without interference from the White House or political appointees,” she wrote to Azar. “All public health advertising should be based on CDC’s public health guidance and should not be distorted by messages designed for partisan political gain. The American people must be able to trust that government-funded communications are intended to protect public health and save lives.”
Another agency overseen by HHS, the Food and Drug Administration is embroiled in a debate over whether to use its emergency authorities to approve a coronavirus vaccine before it is formally approved, the Washington Post reported. Opponents warn early release of a vaccine could be dangerous to health.
But on the other hand, if a vaccine is provided to select populations, like health care workers early, it could help save lives.
An emergency authority could be how the administration could speed vaccine development so doses are ready prior to the election — in addition to other steps Congress and the administration have taken to make sure all aspects of distribution are primed to go once a successful vaccine is identified through clinical trials.
For months, top Trump administration health officials have said a vaccine was not expected until the end of 2020 or early 2021 — until now.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that evidence points to political pressure on the FDA to approve a vaccine before Election Day.
“All Americans want a safe and effective vaccine as soon as possible, but if these important life and death decisions appear political, it will only undermine Americans’ confidence in a vaccine and prolong the pandemic,” he said.
Gov. Ned Lamont issued a similar warning against rushing a vaccine Thursday night.
“On a personal basis, it’s one thing to say you have a vaccine, but you want to do it in way that people have confidence,” he said.
After the CDC sent letters to states urging them to quickly approve applications for a vaccine distributor to operate in their states and highlighted the potential timeline of a vaccine before November, Connecticut has not changed its vaccine planning or strategy, Lamont said.
“We’ll work with CDC,” Lamont said. “We’ll be ready to go if they actually do have a vaccine that is tested and proved.”