Thursday evening’s debate seemed to begin hopefully. The moderator, Kristen Welker, gave President Donald Trump “two and one-half minutes without interruption” to address the COVID-19 crisis. Trump opened with America’s scientific crash program, “Operation Warp Speed,” and its amazing progress in developing a vaccine to be available within weeks. Welker, as if allergic or immune to optimistic thought, immediately forgot her own instructions and interrupted: Would he “guarantee” the vaccine? And what vaccines? Trump said it was not a guaranteed matter, but it would be here by the end of the year. He emphasized that the military had made all the logistical arrangements for a rapid deployment. (Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer, is the logistical co-head of Operation Warp Speed, while Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor, is the scientific co-head.)
In contrast to Welker’s deaf response, Dr. Robert Wachter, the chair of Medicine at UC San Francisco and a furious critic of the Trump Administration’s pandemic response, had an honest if very reluctant response recorded in today’s Washington Post and other media: “Going from where we were in January and February — where we are going to be hit by this tsunami — to very likely having a vaccine, or more than one vaccine, that is proven safe and effective within a year, is staggeringly impressive, and would only have happened with strong and effective federal action.” Wachter called the vaccine mobilization “nearly flawless,” and which he told the Washington Post he found the words difficult to say.
