Joe Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, said last week that he trusts “science” and will trust a vaccine after it is approved by top health officials, but he said he puts no stock in what President Trump says about advances in the search for an inoculation.
Biden’s comments are not surprising and follow in the footsteps of Senator Kamala Harris, his running mate, who said earlier this month she would “not trust Donald Trump, and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about.”
Trump and his campaign, no doubt, see a vaccine prior to the 2020 election as a major victory in the fight against the coronavirus and see its potential to make Americans feel easier about venturing back into the economy. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor, recently praised Trump for his commitment to finding a vaccine and speeding up the process unlike any test trial in U.S. history. (Trump’s critics say he is being reckless and simply trying to get reelected.)
“Scientific breakthroughs don’t care about calendars any more than the virus does,” Biden said. “They certainly don’t adhere to election cycles. And their timing and their approval and their distribution should never, ever be distorted by political considerations.”
Democrats also have been accused of looking at the calendar during the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Public Health Director, said in a leaked audio earlier this month that despite a drop in coronavirus cases in the county, she did not expect schools to reopen until after the elections.
“We don’t, realistically, anticipate that we would be moving to either Tier 2 or to reopening K-12 school at least through, at least until after the election. After, you know, in early November. When we just look at the timing and everything, it seems to us a more realistic approach to this would be to think that we’re going to be where we are now until after we’re done with the elections,” she said.
Trump has accused both Biden and Harris of trying to wage something of an anti-vaxxer campaign in recent weeks in order to affect public opinion about the vaccine.
Biden said Trump’s team still does not have a plan in place to “bring us out of this crisis.”
TREND FORECAST: Again, the foundation of this election will be “It’s the economy, stupid.” Trump will blame the Democrats for locking down the economy, and Biden will blame Trump for not aggressively fighting the COVID War.
It should be noted that national defense and America’s foreign entanglements are not campaign issues at this time.
As of now, despite polls showing Biden the winner of The Presidential Reality Show®, we forecast Trump the winner.
In this COVID Year of Unprecedented Wild Cards, however, it’s an “anything goes,” down-to-the-wire election. Also, as we have noted, the debates will prove instrumental in who wins the race.
At this time, Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris to win over Black and female voters, is, as per our research, having at best a minor effect on the election outcome.
