1. Biden didn't take action until May 2023 because that's when the pandemic authority expired. Literally, up until that point, Biden's policy was exactly teh same as Trump's. He didn't change the Title 42 policy (and wouldn't have been allowed to anyway by the 5th Circuit). I mean, the policies were exactly the same. Biden's people started working on a replacement in 2022 because the pandemic authority was going to run out.
2. As for the vaccine, the law is different there. Trump's initial fast tracking was more about funding than law, and the money was committed by Congress, and there are no complex procedures to follow for doling out research grants, basically. Up until the vaccine was fully developed, there was no law involved at all (except perhaps on the very edges).
Then, once the vaccine was developed, you're right that it required rapid approval. But the FDA law has long provided a mechanism to do just that. It's called a "fast track designation." That's literally where the term "fast track" comes from in the pharma context. That's been the law of the land for at least 25 years. And Trump didn't have anything to do with that. The vaccine makers submitted their applications to the FDA under a fast track designation. The FDA evaluated the applications and approved. That's the way the system is supposed to operate.
3. The responsibility of educated people is to educate those who didn't have our same opportunities. It is not to parrot admittedly uninformed views of "average" people and thus head down a path of ignorance.
Hopefully, you have learned something from this discussion. I've explained the facts and the law, with evidence and links as appropriate. You've asked questions. I've answered them. You can ask more if you want, and I will answer them too assuming they aren't simply combative. I've learned things from people on this board who know more than me about certain topics. I just don't understand the unwillingness of others to do the same.
And then, hopefully, you will then explain this stuff to other people you know. And that's how public discourse is supposed to work, and why it has always been the cornerstone of ordered society. We talk to each other; we learn from each other; we consider people's arguments and perspectives; and then we hopefully form informed views.
MAGA especially (and the Tea Party before it) has obliterated this process in many corners of our society. "Do your own research" is such a regrettable attitude to have. At some point, Tea Party people got it in their heads that they knew more about how things work than the people who do the work professionally. I think a lot of this started with Rush Limbaugh, and a lot of it was in response to global warming. Because, on global warming, in the 1990s we really needed to trust the experts. It wasn't something we were going to be able to observe. And you had Rush getting rich off telling people not to trust the scientists because they were bad people.
Well, now we have ultra destructive hurricanes and wildfires and the Amazon is in danger of disappearing and the ice caps are melting and all of this is actually accelerating and we can't do anything about it because a) in large measure it's too late; and b) the idiots who believed Rush Limbaugh about science are still doing their thing.
4. So what I ask of you, which is the only thing I ask of everyone on the board: stop being part of the problem. Don't read weird ideological websites that are full of misinformation about, say, the climate. Basically all scientists agree about climate change. It's not a controversy. And it has deadly real world consequences. It's impossible for 100,000 PhDs to be so stupid as to believe a load of bullshit. The reason that all scientists agree is the same reason that all doctors agree about vaccines: the evidence is incontrovertible. And if you can't assess the evidence -- which none of us on this board really can, except for one erstwhile poster -- then believe the consensus because there's no reason to think that all of those people are part of some misanthropic conspiracy.
This goes both ways. I'm not interested in left wing quackery any more than right wing quackery. Like, RFK Jr was a Dem, right? I never supported him, not one bit. Never. He's been full of shit for 20 years, and that hasn't varied with his political alliances. I have never had any time for his bullshit. I quickly got tired of the bullshit from Ibram X Kendi, and I don't defend him either. They are part of the problem.
Stop being part of the problem. That's all I ask.
jacobin.com
