Global Cooperation

Global cooperation to develop a vaccine among all countries is extremely important.  The Trump administration will not join a global effort to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine. This short-sighted political decision will hinder scientific collaboration and advancement. More than 170 countries will participate in the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX) . Almost every nation in the world is participating on the joint COVAX project. The WHO, the European Union, Germany, Japan and several major nongovernmental organizations are involved.

This will increase the safe development and distribution of the vaccine. However, Trump will not work with the international cooperative effort. The choice is a dangerous gamble by the Trump administration. What if COVAX finds a vaccine first? We will be vulnerable if the first safe and viable vaccine is developed by another country. The decision to go alone reminds me of Trump pulling the U.S. out of WHO during a global pandemic. Idiocy.

Meanwhile, Trump is politicizing the pandemic as more than 200,000 Americans have died as a result of his incompetence. Department of Health and Human Services’ political appointees repeatedly meddle in weekly outbreak reports prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, Americans are now evenly divided over whether they would get a vaccine to prevent Covid-19, if it were available today.

Michael Caputo was somehow the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services. He has no qualifications or experience. Political hack Caputo is manipulating data to make Trump look better for re-election. He now claims without evidence that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was harboring a “resistance unit” to undermine Trump. What a lunatic.

Three new studies strongly support using steroids to treat people who are seriously ill with COVID-19. The drugs are inexpensive and widely available drugs. Recent research confirms they are the most effective treatment. Some doctors have long used steroids to treat sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Steroids reduced the risk of death by one-third according to an analysis of seven different clinical trials published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Corticosteroids are the first and only therapy to improve the odds of survival for critically ill patients with Covid-19. This confirms that steroids are the standard of care for treatment. We figured that out because of global cooperation.