I’m glad President Trump was right about the coronavirus vaccine

In May, NBC published a “Fact Check” challenging President Trump’s prediction that there would be a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

NBC was factually reporting the answers they got when they asked experts. Those experts didn’t say there would be no vaccine, they said it would be extremely unlikely. The fact that an unlikely thing happened is not evidence of a media conspiracy against the 45th president.

The president also claimed in early November that a vaccine rollout would happen in a couple of weeks, but if he was right then, it’s been a long couple of weeks. And the president has for years claimed he’s nearly ready to roll out a healthcare plan that’s better than Obamacare. He shares many, many predictions, accusations, claims and opinions on Twitter — though they aren’t all of equal value. (He is well known for using Twitter to float a trial balloon, then having his staff qualify and explain and contextualize.)

It’s part of the media’s job to keep score, holding politicians accountable to their past actions and statements. When politicians turn out to be right, it’s appropriate to give them credit.

While Trump himself had nothing to do with the success of the Pfizer vaccine (other than agreeing to pay for 100M doses), and I consider him and his policies morally culpable for much of the suffering that Americans continue to endure on account of the virus, I’m still delighted that he turned out to be right about the timeline.