Deroy Murdock: Trump confounds critics by delivering two COVID vaccines in record time

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CDC announces over 1 million people have been vaccinated in the US

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Another week, another COVID-19 vaccine.

President Trump is piling up China virus inoculations almost as quickly as Middle East peace agreements.

Just four days after Trump brokered a Dec. 10 rapprochement between Israel and Morocco — the fourth such Trump-inspired olive branch between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors in four months — Pfizer introduced its immunization against COVID-19.

On Dec. 14 in the New York City borough of Queens, a critical-care nurse named Sandra Lindsay became the first American to receive Pfizer’s vaccine as part of its public rollout.                                                                                                         

US REACHES MILESTONE OF MORE THAN 1 MILLION VACCINES ADMINISTERED

Pfizer’s shot entered Lindsay’s left arm exactly nine months and one day after President Trump declared the COVID-19 national emergency March 13. On Monday, Americans started getting Moderna’s vaccine, a mere week after Pfizer’s.

This is revolutionary. Vaccines typically take 10 to 15 years to produce. The anti-mumps inoculation was the previous record-breaker. It took four years to go from notion to needle.

Operation Warp Speed (OWS), Trump’s immunological Manhattan Project, deserves its name. Regardless, with one key exception, Trump’s critics have denied him credit for this stunning achievement. In fact, their comments have traced a bizarre trajectory:

First, Trump’s foes begged for a vaccine.

• New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said April 13: "I don’t think ultimate resolution comes until you have a vaccine."

• "We cannot get back to normal until there is a vaccine for the novel coronavirus," MSNBC’s Chris Hayes pleaded April 28.

• Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said May 20 that he wants his economy back to normal, but "I really think that can’t happen fully, 100 percent, until we have a vaccine that is foolproof."

Second, as in the Gershwin tune, they all laughed when Trump promised to do exactly what they wanted, and quickly.

• "It’s another day of POTUS in Wonderland," Irwin Redlener, M.D. scoffed. He assured MSNBC on May 15: "It is impossible to get that done by the end of the year."

• "You cannot talk yourself into a vaccine," MSNBC’s Ali Velshi said that evening. "The fastest a vaccine has ever been produced from start to finish is five years."

• "Trump’s remarks about vaccines have no basis in reality," MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin announced Sept. 16.

• "This is a promise from the president, based not on scientific fact," CNN’s Jake Tapper pontificated September 18. "This is misinformation based, it seems obvious, on his desire to be reelected."

• OWS "lacks sound leadership, global vision, or a strategy for securing the necessary funding to see this mission through," Joe Biden’s campaign website still argues.

Third, Trump’s tormentors now pretend that he had nothing to do with keeping his promise.

• "I just want to fact-check real quick to remind y’all that the companies themselves that are producing these vaccines were not involved in Operation Warp Speed," MSNBC’s Joy Reid said Nov. 17. Not true. In fact, OWS’ funds and deregulation propelled the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

• As Sandra Lindsay took the first Pfizer vaccine, CNN aired Gov. Cuomo watching live, via satellite from Albany, as if he fathered OWS. CNN.com’s story on this momentous occasion makes zero mention of Trump or OWS.

• "Joe Biden, committed to ending and crushing the virus," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "That is a total game changer: a new President and a vaccine." So, Biden did this?

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., named several "beacons of hope" Monday. "One, soon many Americans will have the vaccine," Schumer said. "Two, Joe Biden will become president. He has the experience and the empathy to handle the COVID crisis and will replace a man who has shown no capacity or even interest in doing so." Schumer, naturally, ignored President Trump’s capacity and interest that fast-tracked these vaccines into hospitals, nursing homes, and, soon, pharmacies.

However, on Monday, Biden did the right thing. Moments after receiving Pfizer’s vaccine, he said: "The administration deserves some credit for getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed."

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So, what did Biden see that other Democrats missed? What did President Trump do to get these vaccines into American deltoids?

• The president had the imagination, optimism, and courage to envision a China virus vaccine before 2021.

• President Trump launched OWS May 15 and recruited pharmaceutical companies into this public-private partnership. He then challenged, pressured, and embarrassed them until they delivered. He also committed some $18 billion to this initiative.

• President Trump rode the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies like a jockey. He slapped their ribs with a riding crop as they leapt over red tape, delays, and institutional over-caution.

• The president then pre-purchased multiple drug companies’ output, thus limiting their financial risk, even if their vaccine candidates failed.'

• In an unprecedented innovation, Trump instructed drugmakers to produce millions of doses, simultaneously with clinical trials. Thus, within 24 hours of FDA approval, trucks began to empty inoculation-packed warehouses.

• Rather than weepy academics, the president assigned top Pentagon brass to manage the process. Trump’s uniformed officers hunted a COVID-19 vaccine like an elusive submarine. This maximized discipline and minimized patience for hurt feelings. American Defense News’ Paul Crespo explained: "The military added to the critical logistical aspects of this massive undertaking."

• Trump constantly applauded and publicly thanked those involved in this effort, often on camera.

Hate Trump, Inc. often calls the president "a bully." His praise for Team OWS notwithstanding, it’s unclear whether Trump also bullied the medical researchers, pharmaceutical executives, and military logisticians who manned this effort. However, these organizations and individuals likely were motivated by Trump’s tough, hands-on, "Papa don’t take no mess" style.

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Trump’s enemies long for a lovable, cuddly Mr. Rogers-type in the Oval Office. "National Grandpa" Joe Biden might be that man.

But if Operation Warp Speed had been led by a nice guy in a cardigan sweater, the vaccines now entering American arms still would be getting squirted into mice.

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