On Saturday, while America slowly came to grips with the joy of breathing again for the first time in years, Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released some documents related to its “Operation Warp Speed” COVID-19 vaccination initiative. By “some,” I mean a ton of documents. NPRreports this enormous dump, done while the inevitable end of Donald Trump’s regime was clear to anyone not named Donald Trump, includes all kinds of wild details about billion-dollar deals with big pharmaceutical companies. One of those details is that “customary protections against potential future price-gouging” aren’t in the contracts.
Trump and his team of ne’er-do-wells have been gaslighting the public with confusing and fact-free information about a coronavirus vaccine for months. As with everything else Trump has said in his entire life, he’s lied while trying to line his pockets (or the pockets of people he hopes will line his pockets). This has led to a very real and very understandable wariness on the part of most Americans concerning any announcement by the Trump administration about a safe vaccine.
HHS, through a spokesperson, told NPR that “Operation Warp Speed has long publicly stated its commitment to being as transparent as possible.” And then that spokesperson went on to lie some more about how these contracts are totally fine. However, once again, the issue here is that the Trump administration has created a program that is not simply the opposite of “transparent,” but consistently and deliberately created to circumvent any traditional oversight on the use of taxpayer funds. Continue reading.