Trump has been too busy trying to steal the election to even attempt to oversee the vaccine rollout — and the consequences are dire. The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed goal was to vaccinate 20 million people by January 1st. As of Sunday, only 4.33 million people have received the vaccine. Without financial aid from Congress, which Trump and Republicans have repeatedly blocked, cash-strapped states are struggling to distribute the vaccine at the scale that is needed to reach herd immunity. With the delayed rollout and confusing patchwork of eligibility rules and penalties that vary from state to state, doses are at risk of expiring before they can be administered.
This is what Trump is focused on during his last days in office. He’s purposefully bungling this most critical stage of pandemic response because he’s too focused on pressuring state officials to overturn the results of a democratic election. Down to his final hour, Trump cares about only one thing: Himself. January 20th will come, and Joe Biden will be sworn in as our next president, but the damage Trump has inflicted on the country will scar us for years.