During an appearance on “Fox and Friends,” commentator Geraldo Rivera said the United States should honor President Donald Trump by naming the Covid-19 vaccine after him.
“I have an idea. You know, with the world so divided, and everybody telling him he’s got to give up and ‘time to leave’ and ‘time to transition’ and all the rest of it,” Rivera said. “Why not name the vaccine ‘The Trump’? Like, ‘Have you got your Trump yet?'”
“A nice gesture to him and years from now it would become kind of a generic thing. ‘Have you got your Trump yet?’ ‘Yeah, I got my Trump, I’m fine,'” Rivera continued. “I wish we could honor him in that way because he is definitely the prime architect of this operation Warp Speed and but for him, we’d still be waiting through the grim winter for these amazing, miraculous medical breakthroughs.”
You can watch Rivera’s remarks in the video below.
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Fox's Geraldo Rivera says we should honor Trump by naming the COVID-19 vaccine "Trump", and that Trump's name could eventually become a generic term for vaccines. pic.twitter.com/xoO1A37qIZ
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) November 20, 2020
Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna have announced coronavirus vaccines that are 95 percent and 94.5 percent effective respectively.
Pfizer has not acknowledged Operation Warp Speed. It says it did not work with the Trump administration to develop its coronavirus vaccine.
“We were never part of the Warp Speed … We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone.â€Â said Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer.
The New York Times noted in its coverage that “Dr. Jansen sought to distance the company from Operation Warp Speed and presidential politics, noting that the company — unlike the other vaccine front-runners — did not take any federal money to help pay for research and development.â€
In short, the agreement with Pfizer is for the purchase of the vaccine, which would require emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The United States will acquire up to 500 million additional doses under the agreement.
Moderna, on the other hand, has confirmed it received funds from the federal government to develop its vaccine. In July, the drugmaker announced it got a commitment of an additional $472 million, after previously announcing it would receive $483 million from the government. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel thanked “partners at BARDA and Operation Warp Speed who have been instrumental to accelerating our progress to this point” in its announcement this week.
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
