Well, you've certainly opened another can of worms. One that Trump h**ers thrive on. They are not interested in "more effective pharmaceuticals" or "more knowledgeable medical workers" or a "greater awareness of how to prevent infection"; they are not interested in finding the solutions to v***l infections". You've only given them another opportunity to BLAME PRESIDENT TRUMP.

How are the number of C***d cases tallied? Testing, right? Is it significant that the US leads the world in testing? Currently, the US has tested the equivalent of 52% of our population, OTH, the two most populous nations, China and India, have tested 11% and 9% respectively.

You never heard this from the media.

Early on, when it became apparent the C***d p******c was a serious threat, president Trump acted to eliminate the onerous FDA regulatory restrictions that were obstacles to the research, development, trials, and production of v*****es. Prior to the p******c, the pharmaceutical companies had to overcome a long string of bureaucratic obstacles, jump through a bevy of hoops, and deal with mountains of red tape in order to get a specific drug or v*****e approved. On average, the time for a drug or v*****e to go from the exploratory stage to Phase III trials is 10 years. Add another 6 to 12 months before the drug is approved for prescription.

In March, on the heels of removing those obstacles, president Trump and his c***d task force launched Operation Warp Speed.

OWS is a partnership among components of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and the Department of Defense (DoD). OWS engages with private firms and other federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. It will coordinate existing HHS-wide efforts, including the NIH's Accelerating C****-** Therapeutic Interventions and V*****es (ACTIV) partnership, NIH's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative, and work by BARDA.

At least 7 pharmaceutical firms joined the effort. This is one of those capitalist things in which competition among companies produces results. And, in this case, without the bureaucratic red tape and restrictions.

P****r Inc. and BioNTech SE announced they will submit a request today, Nov. 20, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for E*******y Use A***********n (EUA) of their m**A v*****e candidate, BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2, which will potentially enable use of the v*****e in high-risk populations in the U.S. by the middle to end of December 2020.

Bottom line is, because of Donald Trump's experience in the world of business, he was able to initiate a massive government/private sector cooperative effort to secure a C***d v*****e that got results in less than one year.

God forbid such a thing. The Trump h**ers want no part of a v*****e. They'll stick with lock downs, masks and social distancing in hopes of achieving a body count matching Hitler's, that way they can finally charge him with genocide and crimes against humanity.

I believe safety measures should be within reason, not so over reactive as to destroy local economies, deprive people of freedom of movement, keep children from school, etc.

Every time I go into Santa Monica and walk or drive up Santa Monica Blvd, seeing block after block of small businesses that were families' and individuals' livelihoods and sole sources of income now permanently shuttered because the proprietors simply couldn't wait out lengthy shutdown times, for example.

Where was the overreaction during the large flu p******cs or SARS? Liquor and grocery store owners and employees whose businesses were allowed to stay open are doing just fine.

Are we to assume that Democrat politicians conducted a medical study no one else knows about that concluded that grocery and liquor stores are C***d free, while all other businesses are natural incubators?

Or can we suspect that these local Democrats simply saw the opportunity to exploit a perfectly good crisis and do their share, in their small ways, to shut down some of the Trump economy?