After Donald Trump announced a “vaccine summit” for Tuesday, the event turned out to be anything but as the president spent most of the time falsely claiming that he won the presidential election instead of staying focused on the vastly more critical issue of getting a coronavirus vaccine to the American public. Although, when Trump did address the increasing pandemic, it was to oddly cheer the growing number of infection rates, which for the record, is not a good thing. More Americans getting COVID is bad. Very bad. Via The Daily Beast:
“I hear we’re close to 15 percent. I’m hearing that, and that’s terrific,” Trump said of the percentage of Americans who have contracted COVID-19.
He appeared to be referencing the increased likelihood that a rising infection rate would bring the country closer to so-called herd immunity, which would effectively stop the virus from spreading because there would be no potential carriers to which it could go.
As The Daily Beast notes, medical experts have repeatedly warned that achieving herd immunity would require at least 70% of Americans to be infected with COVID-19. Considering the country is only just now nearing a 15% infection that has already left over 284,000 people dead, reaching herd immunity would result in a catastrophic death toll of well over a million.
Unfortunately, herd immunity wasn’t the only conspiracy theory that Trump spread during the summit. When asked about why the incoming Biden Administration wasn’t being included in the vaccine distribution plans, Trump claimed that actually he won before pleading for the Supreme Court to overturn the election results.
“We were rewarded with a victory,” Trump said via Mediaite. “Now let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it’s a legislator or legislatures or whether it’s a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.”
"Well, we're gonna have to see who the next administration is … hopefully the next administration will be the Trump administration … we were rewarded with a victory" — Trump is still lying about his election loss pic.twitter.com/amriO46DW9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2020
(Via The Daily Beast, Mediaite)