Trump gives science a pulse in the middle of campaign for re-election

Donald Trump, center, with Robert Redfield (left) at a press conference last week.Carolyn Kaster / AP

Donald Trump's run for re-election to the White House has run into a crisis of stratospheric proportions, the pandemic, which he had not expected seven months ago and which has exacerbated his longstanding disagreements with the scientific community.

Faced with messages of caution from his scientists, the president assures that the vaccine will be available even in a matter of weeks.

His rival at the polls, Democratic candidate Joe Biden, has cast doubt on any announcement that the president makes on such a sensitive issue before the appointment with the polls, on November 3.

A strident cacophony took place on Wednesday even by this Administration's standards.

The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, in English), Robert Redfield, stated during an appearance in the Senate that the vaccine against covid-19 would not be available to the general public until mid-2021, which that supposes a jug of cold water on the most optimistic forecasts, raised by the epidemiologist of reference in the White House, Anthony Fauci, and, above all, by Donald Trump, who believes that it is feasible that the first patients can start using them in a matter of weeks.

"If you ask me when it will be available so that we can start using it to get back to our normal lives, I think we are probably looking at the end of the second quarter, third quarter of 2021," Redfield noted.

The doctor added that between November and December it is possible that there will be one, but he clarified that it will be "a very limited supply" for whose distribution they will have to establish priorities (vulnerable people or essential personnel, for example).

The Republican appeared before the media just hours later from the White House and corrected Redfield.

“We are ready to distribute it immediately [once it is obtained],” he stressed, “I think [the CDC director] made a mistake when he said that.

It's just wrong information, I think I was confused. "

For Trump's rival at the polls, the Democratic candidate Joe Biden, the bickering on a matter as sensitive as this is electoral compost, they serve to influence the image of an erratic and uninformed Administration.

On Wednesday he questioned the reliability of any Trump announcements about these drugs.

"I trust vaccines and I trust scientists, but I don't trust Donald Trump," he said.

Trump insisted in a radio interview on Thursday that the process is going better than expected and attacked Democrats for questioning it.

"They are petrified if the vaccine comes before the [November] elections," he said.

Less than two months before the presidential elections, the race to get a vaccine as soon as possible is a recurring theme in Trump's campaign rallies.

The US accumulates almost 200,000 deaths from coronavirus and health restrictions keep the economy in a lethargy (the Federal Reserve estimates a contraction of 3.7% this year), with job losses that have not been seen since the Great Depression.

The unease that this panorama raises in citizens is only calmed with the idea of ​​a definitive solution to the pandemic, which involves the vaccine, and the Republican usually assures that before November 3 it will be available, at least, for the sick most vulnerable.

In an interview with the president on

on Tuesday

, he ventured to say that one could be approved "in a matter of weeks."

On Monday, at a meeting with voters organized by

the president even questioned the need for the use of masks, a matter that he already seemed to have accepted.

“There are many people who do not want to wear them, like the waiters who think it is a problem because they touch the mask and touch the dishes;

many people, like doctor Fauci, said at the beginning that they should not be worn ”.

The discrepancy between the president and the scientific community has also been evident in the wake of the historic wave of fires on the West Coast.

Trump, who has always embodied the denialist discourse in the face of the climate emergency, visited California on Monday and starred in, live and direct, a scuffle with experts in the field.

The president attributed the crisis to poor forest management, which is a dart for state authorities - California in a rabidly Democratic territory and a strong opponent of Trump - and not to an environmental crisis.

"I don't think science knows what's going on," Trump said at an informational meeting, which was also attended by State Governor Gavin Newson.

"If we ignore science, bury our heads in the sand and believe that it is all due to vegetation management, we are not going to protect Californians," Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfort told Trump.

To which Trump replied: "The weather will begin to cool, you be vigilant."

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