Just the News
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President Donald Trump on Monday shot holes in the COVID-19 vaccine accomplishments of his first term, posting on Truth Social that, "They [Pfizer] show me GREAT numbers and results, but they don’t seem to be showing them to many others. I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as “BRILLIANT” as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it.
Trump has been reticent to show any dissatisfaction with Operation Warp Speed, which was announced in 2020 and produced the COVID-19 vaccine in short-order at the onset of the pandemic in 2021, and for the last half-decade, has declined to refer to the public-private partnership as anything other than a success.
He frequently highlighted the unprecedented speed of development, which produced the vaccine in under nine months as opposed to the typical five to ten years. Trump also repeated claims of the effectiveness of the vaccines and the program’s role in allegedly saving millions of lives. He credited the program’s success to his administration’s funding (over $18 billion, including $10 billion redirected from hospital funds), deregulation, and partnerships with private companies like Pfizer and Moderna.
As recently as August 28 in his cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump touted the vaccine, citing it as a "medical miracle" that saved millions of lives. "Operation Warp Speed people say is one of the greatest achievements ever in politics or in the military ... Everybody, including Putin, said that 'Operation Warp Speed, what you did with that, nobody could believe it.' We did a great job."
Not very cult-like, Trump's base disagrees
While his detractors criticize his base for being in lock-step with the president on all issues, even going as far as calling them a "MAGA Cult," even his most ardent supporters have abandoned the notion that the vaccines were "safe and effective."