In case no one’s noticed, there’s something seriously wrong with the president of the United States:
Prime ministers, a king, a prince and Madonna all chipped in to an $8 billion pot to fund a coronavirus vaccine.
President Trump skipped the chance to contribute, with officials in his administration noting that the United States is pouring billions of dollars into its own research efforts.
A fund-raising conference on Monday organized by the European Union brought pledges from countries around the world — from Japan to Canada, Australia to Norway — to fund laboratories that have promising leads in developing and producing a vaccine.
For more than three hours, one by one, global leaders said a few words over video link and offered their nations’ contribution, small or large, whatever they could muster. For Romania, it was $200,000. For Canada, $850 million.
It was a rare show of global leadership on the part of the Europeans, and a late-hour attempt at international coordination. Countries the world over have been pursuing divergent — and often competing — approaches to tackling the pandemic.
While the European Union may have led this global fund-raising effort, the bloc has struggled to get its own 27 members on the same page with health, travel and financial measures to respond to the coronavirus crisis. And the details of how the money raised on Monday will be distributed still remain to be sorted out.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union that spearheaded the initiative, said the money would be spent over the next two years to support promising initiatives around the globe. The ultimate goal is to deliver universal and affordable access to medication to fight Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The multilateral effort stood in sharp contrast to the solo road the United States is on as scientists everywhere scramble to develop a vaccine to stop the virus that has ravaged most parts of the globe, leaving 250,000 dead so far.
In early March, German government officials said they believed that Mr. Trump had tried to lure a company based in southwestern Germany that was known to be working on a vaccine to move its research work to the United States.
The company, CureVac, has denied receiving such an offer, but reports of the American invitation were enough of a scare to prompt the European Commission to pledge another $85 million to the firm, which already had support from a European vaccine consortium.
In Washington on Monday, senior Trump administration officials sought to talk up American contributions to coronavirus vaccine efforts worldwide, but did not explain the United States’ absence at the European-organized conference.
Remind me again, why, why, does this chiseler, deadbeat, grifter, liar, and incompetent man have a job?
Note to my dear bloggy friends who will feel a compulsion to explain exactly why international cooperation on something like a vaccine might just happen to be a good pretty good idea:
Don’t take the bait. Everyone already knows this is completely wrong. It’s the political equivalent of suggesting people mainline disinfectant.
International cooperation doesn’t have to be explained. And patiently explaining this oh-so-fucking-obvious point distracts from what we should be doing, which is responding with unalloyed disgust and contempt at Trump’s despicable inactions.