CDC Director Redfield Contradicting Trump on Vaccine Timeline, Effectiveness
Majority of Americans Worry About a Vaccine Being Politicized
Number of Americans Who Would Receive Vaccine Declining
President Trump has spent the duration of the pandemic downplaying the severity of the virus, undercutting his own experts, and politicizing science. Just yesterday, after CDC Director Robert Redfield directly contradicted Trump’s vaccine timeline, Trump baselessly attacked Redfield, falsely claiming that Redfield was “confused.”
But President Trump’s chronic attacks on his own advisors are nothing more than a last ditch effort to salvage his reelection bid. He’s attempting to create an alternate reality wherein the coronavirus hasn’t unnecessarily killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States and in which a silver bullet miracle cure will arrive just as Americans begin casting ballots.
In trying to paint this false picture, Trump is achieving nothing more than making Americans distrustful of an eventual coronavirus vaccine. The polling suggests that more and more Americans suspect the process is becoming politicized, and agree with Director Redfield that a rosy election day timeline is unsafe and unlikely.
CDC Director Redfield Is Contradicting President Trump on the Vaccine Process.
- CDC Director Robert Redfield Argued That Mask Wearing May Be More Effective Protection Against The Coronavirus Than A Vaccine, Despite Trump’s Ridicule Of Mask-Wearing. “[Redfield] called masks ‘the most important, powerful public health tool we have’ in fighting the pandemic, adding that universal use of face coverings could bring the pandemic under control in months. ‘I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a Covid vaccine,’ Dr. Redfield said. Vaccines are not 100 percent effective, whereas masks, worn properly, do what they are designed to do.” [New York Times, 9/16/20]
- Redfield Predicted That There Would Not Be Widespread Vaccine Results Until The Second Or Third Quarter Of 2021, Undercutting Trump Claims That One Will Be Ready By The Election. “[Redfield] laid out a timeline for when the general US public could expect to start seeing results from widespread coronavirus vaccination the second or third quarter of 2021. Those statements both seemed to contradict what Trump has been saying… Redfield told the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday: ‘If you’re asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public, so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we’re probably looking at third, late second quarter, third quarter 2021.’” [CNN, 9/16/20]
- In Response, Trump Told Reporters That Redfield’s Comments Were A “Mistake” And That The CDC Director “Misunderstood” The Benefits Of A Vaccine Compared With Mask Wearing. “Responding to Redfield’s congressional testimony, Trump took his pushback against the doctor… a step further, contradicting the agency head on two accounts: the timeline for a coronavirus vaccine and the effectiveness of masks compared with inoculation.The President told reporters Redfield was ‘confused’ when he said that. ‘I think he made a mistake when he said that. It’s just incorrect information,’ Trump said. The President also said Redfield’s comments to Congress about masks possibly being more effective than a vaccine were incorrect and that Redfield may have misunderstood the question. ‘Maybe he misunderstood it,’ Trump said, later adding, ‘As far as the masks are concerned, I hope that the vaccine is going to be a lot more beneficial than the masks.’” [CNN, 9/16/20]
Polling Shows the American People Don’t Trust President Trump on His Politicized Push for a Vaccine.
Americans Don’t Believe What President Trump Says About Vaccines.
- 81 Percent Of Adults Do Not Think A Coronavirus Vaccine Will Be Widely Available Before The Election. “Most adults (81%), including majorities across partisans, do not think a vaccine for coronavirus will be widely available in the U.S. before the presidential election in November.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/20]
- Just 26 Percent Of American Adults Trust What Donald Trump Says About A Vaccine. A majority of American adults don’t trust what President Donald Trump has said about a coronavirus vaccine, according to new data from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Tracking poll, as the share of people who say they would get a government-approved vaccine has decreased. Fifty-two percent of adults say they don’t trust the president’s vaccine comments, while just 26 percent say they do. Twenty percent say they are ‘not aware’ whether they trust what the president has said about a vaccine.” [NBC News, 9/15/20]
Americans Believe Political Pressure Will Lead the FDA to Approve a Vaccine Before Making Sure It’s Safe and Effective.
- A Majority Of Adults — 62 Percent — Are Worried That Political Pressure Will Lead The FDA To Approve A Vaccine Before Making Sure It Is Safe And Effective. “Many (62%) are worried that the political pressure from the Trump administration will lead the FDA to rush to approve a coronavirus vaccine without making sure that it is safe and effective – including 85% of Democrats and 61% of independents.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/20]
- Four In Ten Adults Overall Say That The FDA And The CDC Are Paying “Too Much Attention” To Politics When Reviewing Treatments. “About four in ten adults overall say both the FDA (39%) and the CDC (42%) are paying ‘too much attention’ to politics when it comes to reviewing and approving treatments for coronavirus or issuing guidelines and recommendations.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/20]
Americans Are Becoming Increasingly More Unlikely to Get a Vaccine If and When One Becomes Available.
- More Than Half Of Adults Now Say They Would Not Get Vaccinated If A Vaccine Was Approved Before The Election. “Moreover, if a coronavirus vaccine was indeed approved by the FDA before the election and was made available and free to everyone who wanted it, just four in ten adults (42%) say they would want to get vaccinated while a slight majority (54%) say they would not want to get vaccinated under those circumstances.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 9/10/20]
- The Percentage Of American Adults Who Are Willing To Get A Vaccine If One Becomes Widely Available Has Dropped From 44 Percent To 39 Percent In Just One Month. “Adults are also more skeptical about whether they or their families would get a government-approved coronavirus vaccine if one became widely available. The [NBC News/Survey Monkey] poll’s latest data show that just 39 percent of adults say they would, 23 percent say they wouldn’t and 36 percent say they aren’t sure. About a month ago, 44 percent of adults said they would get a government-approved vaccine, 22 percent said they wouldn’t, and 32 percent said they weren’t sure. The high-water mark on the question was from the week of Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, when 45 percent of adults said they would get a vaccine. That number has steadily declined in the weeks since.” [NBC News, 9/15/20]
- Two-Thirds Of US Voters Say They Won’t Try To Get A Vaccine As Soon As It Becomes Available, While One In Four Don’t Plan To Ever Get It. “Two-thirds of U.S. voters say they won’t try to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available, and one in four say they don’t want to ever get it, according to a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll released the same week that the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed 6 million.” [USA Today, 9/4/20]