MSNBC's Joe Scarborough parsed President Donald Trump's social media statement demanding that pharmaceutical companies "justify the success" of their COVID medications.
Nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention condemned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership as dangerous in a scathing op-ed Monday in the New York Times, and later that morning Trump issued a Truth Social post calling on drug companies to put to rest concerns about coronavirus vaccines and therapies.
"Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree!" Trump posted. "With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW. I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not???"
"They go off to the next 'hunt' and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work," he added. "They show me GREAT numbers and results, but they don’t seem to be showing them to many others. I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as 'BRILLIANT' as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???"
The "Morning Joe" host tried to read between the lines in the post, which came amid speculation about the president's own health after ducking out of public appearances for days.
"President Trump seems to be playing to his base, questioning the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine," Scarborough said. "It comes amid chaos at the CDC with several high-profile resignations in response to the Trump administration's vaccine skepticism. You know, what's interesting here is ... Trump tells drugmakers to 'justify the success' of Covid meds after the FDA limits vaccine approval."
"I do wonder if this isn't actually him saying to the drugmakers, tell them what I did right, like how wrong they are and what, because he's not going to sacrifice Operation Warp Speed, will he?" Scarborough added. "I mean, he knows, he hears, you know, even his Democratic friends, he hears scientists, he hears people in media saying this was an extraordinary success. So it's kind of like, yeah, 'God, please tell me, was this a success or not?'"
The development of mRNA vaccines in a public-private partnership to protect against Covid-19 has been widely praised as one of Trump's greatest achievements, although many of his supporters have been suspicious of them since they became available, and Kennedy is reportedly considering pulling them off the market.
"I mean, the crazy thing is, are you really going to let this guy who's been engaging in pseudoscience for the past 20 years undermine what really should be seen as his greatest accomplishment?" Scarborough said. "I mean, in terms of opening up business, opening up society, opening up the world, saving millions of lives, saving billions and billions of dollars, I mean, and he's going to, I find it hard to believe he's going to let Bobby Kennedy Jr. trash the legacy as much as Bobby Kennedy Jr. is trying to trash that legacy right now."
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