#Joe Biden and Kamala Harris need to quit playing politics with COVID-19 vaccine

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President Trump has hinted that a vaccine might be ready by October.
REUTERS

Are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris trying to prolong the pandemic? That might be the result of their reckless efforts to erode confidence in a vaccine — even as they blame President Trump for doing that.

“I would want to see what the scientists said” about any vaccine, Biden huffed Monday. “I want full transparency.” That is: Don’t trust a vaccine OK’d by Team Trump.

Harris was even more blunt: She’d “trust the word of public-health experts” but not the president — and insisted those experts won’t have the final say: They “will be muzzled, they will be suppressed, they will be sidelined.” What an appalling insult to the integrity of Dr. Tony Fauci and others.

The anti-Trump media, too, are playing this game: “Scientists Worry About Political Influence Over Coronavirus Vaccine Project,” The New York Times blared.

What will come of sowing such doubt? As Biden himself notes, “If we do have a really good vaccine, people are going to be reluctant to take it,” though he blames Trump for that, despite his own words and Harris’.

Sure, Trump may be trying too hard to lift hopes. His hint that a vaccine might be ready by October, on the eve of the election, sounds overly wishful.

But nine drugmakers have pledged to make safety a top priority. They vowed not to seek emergency approval before trials are complete and to adhere to “high ethical standards and sound scientific principles” in producing the vaccine. Federal agencies will also vet the results. The public can feel sure they’ll get a good product.

It’s not enough to create a vaccine; people have to actually take it to stop the spread of the virus. With anti-vax paranoia a known national problem, it’s obscene for Trump’s foes to push hysteria.