Covid - One Year In

 A little more than a year ago, a colleague and I were noting the spread of Covid into the US.  We had been discussing the news out of China for more than a month.  Most of our friends and family didn't know what we were talking about, but we saw the potential for a larger spread of the disease.

Here the nation is a year later and Covid mutations are starting to spread.  The good news...fingers crossed...is that the vaccines coming out of Operation Warp Speed (I call them the Trump shots) generally provide protection against those mutations.  The bad news is that these mutated strains seem to be more contagious even if they aren't more deadly as a percentage of infected cases.

So taking some steps to control the spread of those mutations is probably a good idea.  What is the Biden administration's first step?  They ban people from entering the US from Europe and South Africa; the places where those mutations are currently running rampant.

What was the first step of the Trump administration one year ago?  To ban people from entering the US that had recently been to China.  He was called a racist.  Mayors of New York City and San Francisco encouraged large gatherings of people in their respective "Chinatowns".  Given the rapid spread of Covid in the New York City area, promoting large gatherings of people anywhere in that city was a dangerous choice.

Mr. Biden is now being praised for taking precisely the same public health step for which Mr. Trump was vilified.  Parenthetically, Hawaii has largely avoided Covid precisely because they have banned people from coming to Hawaii if they do not have a negative Covid test.  Mr. Trump's initial reaction to this disease has been validated many times, yet no one that called his reaction racist back then will be willing to retract that scurrilous accusation now.

Many people complained that Mr. Trump did not issue an executive order mandating nationwide use of masks.  While his administration did provide recommendations regarding social distancing and other measures, he did not put the force of law behind those recommendations.

During the fall campaign, Mr. Biden promised to issue executive orders on those topics.  Shortly after making those promises, he had to retract them. Why?

Because the President of the United States does not have the legal authority to issue such orders.  The President (or their administration) can issue recommendations, but they cannot legally mandate those kinds of public health orders.

The authority for those orders rests solely with the governors of the individual states.

Which President demonstrated the most respect for the constitutional limits on federal authority with respect to public health? Mr. Trump.

The Trump administration also established Operation Warp Speed to streamline the regulatory process associated with the development of new vaccines.  As a part of this program, the government offered upfront research funding as well as commitments to purchase vaccines before they had been validated by the testing process.  Companies researching those vaccines had the choice of accepting both, one or the other, or none of that fiscal backing.  

Ultimately, the first two successful vaccines were developed with some sort of financial backing from the US government.  Additionally, the modifications to the onerous FDA testing/evaluation process allowed those companies to create, test, and bring to the market two highly effective vaccines in less than a year.  All of the "experts" said it would take at least two years.

And finally, there is the preparation for the distribution of the vaccine.  The Trump administration began working with the various states to develop plans to get the vaccine doses where they needed to be in a timely fashion.  This effort began back in September.  The administration reviewed the state plans, evaluated them, pointed out potential problems, and worked with the states to improve their plans.

Each state was then responsible for properly executing those distribution plans.  Some states have done better than others both in planning and execution.  

And the result is that at the end of January, we are on track to have 100 million doses administered in the first 100 days of the Biden administration.  That simply doesn't happen without the competence of the Trump administration.

The point?  Every administration has had successes and failures.  While the Trump administration could have done better in a few areas, they have mostly been very successful at addressing Covid-19.  The Biden administration can't actually say that because it would undermine the media narrative that the Trump administration couldn't do anything correctly.

They could do things well, and in the case of Covid-19, then got most things right.  Given the choice between believing the media or your own lying eyes, take your lying eyes.