Trump was right about the vaccines, the fact-checkers were wrong
Credibility.
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President Trump assured everyone during the 2020 election that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready before the end of the year, maybe even before Election Day.
Media fact-checkers insisted he was most likely mistaken, if not lying outright.
On Monday, the first coronavirus vaccination took place in Queens, New York. Sandra Lindsay, a nurse and director of patient services in the intensive care unit at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, received the shot, “the first known clinically authorized inoculation outside of a vaccine trial,” according to the New York Times.
COVID-19 vaccinations are taking place elsewhere across the United States.
So, about those fact-checks.
In March, the Washington Post published an article seeking to “fact-check” Trump’s “accelerated timeline for a coronavirus vaccine.”
“President Trump,” the article reads, “has adopted a new refrain: A vaccine for the novel coronavirus will be completed in record time. On several occasions, the president has bragged about the speed with which experts and pharmaceutical companies are working on a vaccine.”
“Trump appears to be expediting the vaccine development process, misrepresenting how fast a vaccine will be available to the public in fighting the novel coronavirus,” read the article’s “bottom line,” adding that Dr. Anthony Fauci, who lied about the importance of face masks, “has repeatedly corrected the president’s comments on the vaccine to put forward a more accurate timeline.”
Later, in May, Trump said during a Rose Garden event, "We're looking to get it by the end of the year if we can, maybe before." He tweeted later, “Good numbers coming out of States that are opening. America is getting its life back! Vaccine work is looking VERY promising, before end of year. Likewise, other solutions!”
NBC News was quick to challenge these assertions with a “fact-check” citing “experts” who say “he needs a 'miracle' to be right.”
Then, in October, Vice President Mike Pence boasted during a debate that a vaccine would likely be ready for distribution by the end of the year.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, Operation Warp Speed, we believe, will have literally tens of millions of doses of a vaccine before the end of this year,” he said.
Not so, asserted a New York Times fact-check.
"This is misleading," said the paper. "[J]ust one of the five — Pfizer — has said that it could have initial results this month, and the Food and Drug Administration this week published guidelines for evaluating emergency authorizations that detailed why it could take at least several more months for a company to clear the bar."
There is more, but you get the point.
This should not surprise you. Fact-checking in the age of Trump has been mostly about fobbing off obviously biased news reporting and opinion commentary as impartial, dispassionate expert analysis.
Congratulations, fact-checkers. In your rush to “dunk” on Trump, who is already widely distrusted, you managed to diminish further your own credibility, all while dragging down the health experts who also ended up being wrong about the coronavirus vaccine timetable.
Let's hear it for trust in our institutions.