Operation Warp Speed Rebuked

Yesterday, RFK Jr., a man who sounds like he is moments away from dying whenever he opens his mouth, removed the “he COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization schedule for "healthy children and pregnant women."“ The US health system is byzantine and I have no idea what this actually means for every day people in the United States. It was expected because RFK Jr. is a conspiracist who has medical opinions from 200 years ago and who does not understand how evidence works. But it’s still just…wild.

When I saw the news I first thought to myself “Imagine presiding over one of the greatest medical achievements in the history of humanity and not wanting to campaign on it later.” Is there another successful US politician in would have been involved in something so stupendous and turned his back on it so much? I think your average politician - certainly your average president - would have, if anything, tried to take even more credit.

At first I thought, well Trump knows a certain section of his base is crazy and he knows that his most popular fans don’t believe in vaccines so he has no choice but to repudiate this extraordinarily successful program.

And, make no mistake, Operation Warp Speed is the best thing Trump has ever done and will ever do. There are so many things wrong personally with Trump but, as a President, at least in his first term, he was somewhat less harmful than other presidents. I know this is a controversial take for some but, honestly, Bush Jr. was so much worse for the world than Trump I. Bush Jr.’s government killed hundreds of thousands of people and, because that wasn’t enough, created ISIS. Trump I’s government did indeed kill people and he pissed off a lot of people here, and his domestic policies were arguably far more harmful to the long-term future of the United States and the people living in it. But his regime didn’t kill as many people as many other US presidential regimes.

But even though Trump’s initial presidency wasn’t as bad as some thing and could have been much, there’s no getting around how great Operation Warp Speed was. And no matter how much evil you calculate how much evil Trump has done, is doing and will continue to do, Operation Warp Speed saved tons of lives. It is a great thing that he did - or let happen, I guess - and he has never done anything else of remotely similar good. (Because most of what he does is indeed bad for basically everyone else but him.) It’s inconceivable to me that he will ever do anything remotely close to as good before he ties. It feels impossible given Trump’s personality, his age, and the political climate in the US.

And yet, he wants nothing to do with it. But I don’t think this is great political calculus on his part. It might be accidentally. I don’t think Trump knows or cares that he presided over what was essentially a scientific miracle. If people have told him, I think he forgets or decides they are exaggerating. He doesn’t know how vaccines work, he doesn’t know how medicine works. His live was saved by doctors when he had COVID and he probably doesn’t think much about it all. Who knows what stories he tells himself about that time he almost tied from COVID. He certainly doesn’t give a shit if you or anyone in your family dies from COVID or some other illness that has a vaccine.

All Trump knows is that the people who supported the vaccines cost him the 2020 election. And he knows that they hate RFK Jr, a man who is only prominent because of his last name, who has nothing to recommend him to his job beyond that the same people Trump hates hate him.

And so, because this small, little vindictive man - who a bunch of Americans have been conned by - wants to punish some people, a bunch of other people will die. (Some are already dying due, in part, to decisions RFK Jr. and others have already taken.)

If you wrote a novel with this plot and published it in 2011 I would have thought it was so utterly outlandish.