Voting, The USPS, Russian Vaccine

 Saturday morning in Altadena, California and so much has been going on this week. There are a few things that I think bear discussion. As the election draws closer, voting in the midst of a pandemic is increasingly on the minds of many Americans. The prospect of standing in long lines, even masked and socially distanced, unnerves many people. As it should. With increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, congregating indoors even with masks and social distancing presents a risk for acquisition of the virus, especially for those with preexisting medical conditions, the elderly, and people of color. 

A solution to this problem is voting by mail. In California, my wife and I have voted by mail since moving here over 4 years ago. The system works. Not only is it convenient, but it also allows time to understand the candidates running for the various offices (judges are especially important and one can look at the candidates before marking the ballot) and has no risk of being exposed to COVID-19. We receive a receipt when the ballot is received and when it is counted; we know we have voted. Despite Donald Trump’s continuing lies that massive fraud will occur during mail-in voting (but not absentee voting!!), there is no evidence whatsoever to support his mendacity. As Margaret Sullivan writes in the Washington Post, “Listen to President Trump long enough, and, despite his penchant for falsehood, you’ll eventually hear some unvarnished truth.” It is clear to me that Trump and his minions, especially Postmaster General DeJoy, are interested only in voter suppression. Voter suppression was the choice of Southern whites during the Jim Crow era and is the choice of the current occupant of the White House and the entire Republican Party. A John Lewis quote applies: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” The act is voting and every American citizen has a vote. The assault on the USPS puts American democracy at risk. We must continue to protest this sleazy attempt to steal the election by the current administration. Here is a link to a short podcast from NPR on what this means to all Americans.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic proceeds apace. As I have noted before, the feckless and cowardly response to the pandemic by the Trump administration has brought our nation to its knees. As I write this, the United States has 5,254,828 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 167, 253 deaths. The death total is the same as the population of Springfield, Missouri for comparison -- and going up by ~1000 cases daily. The drive to develop a safe and effective vaccine is continuing. Yesterday while I exercised, I listened to a podcast from Johns Hopkins about the news that Russia has approved a vaccine and will begin vaccinating its population within weeks. I would urge you to listen because the Russian vaccine is being deployed without the necessary Phase 3 trials needed to ensure safety and efficacy. Why is that important? I worked for the last eleven years of my career on vaccine trials done by the NIH. Phase 3 trials look for both safety signals in a wide population (not simply healthy young adults) that are likely to be missed in the smaller Phase 1 and 2 trials as well as seeing that the vaccine works in the real world to prevent or ameliorate disease. Vladimir Putin is pushing the Russian vaccine for a political win, which he needs domestically and internationally. Sadly, Trump has shown repeatedly he follows Putin’s strategies and it would be a catastrophe if any vaccine effort in the United States is politicized simply for a cheap “win”. Do I think Trump would do that? Yes, I do. At the risk of a terrible pun, no one should be rushin’ to put a vaccine on the streets without making certain the correct scientific steps have been followed.

Enough for now. Stay safe. Protest loudly and daily for a fair election, including mail-in voting. And please, vote in the upcoming election. The fate of American democracy is in our hands.