Dear Friend,

Donald Trump said we’re going to have a vaccine sooner than you think, teasing the possibility, as The New Republic’s Libby Watson writes, “that a vaccine will be available before a ‘a very special date,’ like a Christmas episode of a TV show.”
Even under these extraordinary circumstances, a normal administration and political party would be promoting the importance of the Food and Drug Administration’s office of vaccines as a neutral and trusted arbiter. “It nevertheless feels naïve at best to imagine that the vast majority of Republicans would trust the FDA over their Dear Leader,” says Watson. “Frankly, it seems more likely that a good chunk of them would let Trump personally inject their grandchildren with Trump-branded bleach than side with the FDA on the need for scientific rigor.”

Of course the mainstream media either endorses Trump’s magical thinking or criticizes his pronouncements, making it important for him to prove himself. If you have the feeling that you’re not getting the full story from the Washington establishment and mainstream media, The New Republic’s election coverage is honest and fearless. And you can try it now at a special rate:

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Libby Watson adds: “We are thus left to wait and see what happens if the evidence of a safe and effective vaccine does not come at the end of October as promised—if the chief scientists and advisers in his administration are faced with the impossible task of convincing the president that he cannot do the insane, dangerous, and entirely selfish thing that he wants to do, which would be to pressure the Food and Drug Administration to issue an emergency use authorization, or EUA, for an unproven vaccine.”

Watson also warns: “Perhaps the really scary thing is not whether Trump approves a vaccine before it’s ready: It’s whether he gets another four years to keep failing at everything else, too.”

With the election heating up, now’s the time to join Libby Watson, and some of the best investigative reporters, opinion writers, and cultural critics in America. 

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Sincerely,

Kerrie Gillis, publisher

Read Libby Watson’s Trumpian Politics Is the Greatest Threat to a Coronavirus Vaccine