So here’s a thing that happened today…
Donald Trump touted a new and completely non-existent AIDS vaccine during a press conference about police reform.
Just another day in 2020, right?
The remarks came during a long and rambling aside about the “tremendous progress” being made on the COVID-19 vaccine. Trump told reporters that, while working on the vaccine, the “most brilliant” American scientists and “best” American doctors also stumbled upon a vaccine for AIDS.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Or something.
“I deal with these incredible scientists [and] doctors very, very closely,” Trump blabbered. “I have great respect for their minds and they have come up with things. They’ve come up with many other cures and therapeutics over the years.”
Related: Donald Trump Jr. slams Queerty for fighting HIV stigma
“These are the… best, the smartest, most brilliant anywhere,” he said. “And they’ve come up with the AIDS vaccine!”
Wait… what? That’s HUGE news! Too bad it’s 100% NOT true.
Continued Trump, “As you know, there’s various things and now various companies are involved… but the therapeutic for AIDS… AIDS was a death sentence, and now people live a life with a pill. It’s an incredible thing.”
To be very, very clear, according to HIV.gov, “There is currently no vaccine available that will prevent HIV infection or treat those who have it.”
There are, however, antiretroviral medicines that can maintain viral suppression in people who are HIV-positive, as well as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which can be taken to help reduce an HIV-negative person’s risk of getting HIV if they are exposed to the virus, but those are not vaccines.
That’s probably what Trump was talking about, but, honestly, who knows?
Related: Trump closes down White House Office of AIDS Policy
HIV/AIDS used to be viewed as a death sentence, but a series of medical breakthroughs in the early 1990s and continuing through today have made it so people living with HIV, with the help of antiretroviral medication, can enjoy healthy life spans comparable to people who are HIV-negative.
Watch Trump tout the imaginary AIDS vaccine below. Or don’t.
President Trump: "They've come up with the AIDS vaccine." pic.twitter.com/JF6zCdmPYC
— The Hill (@thehill) June 16, 2020
Cam
Now Republicans and FOX News will do the same old dance to cover for Trump’s lies or idiocy.
They’ll claim Trump didn’t say what he said, and that he REALLY said he supports the search for a vaccine and blah blah blah. ANYTHING to cover up the fact that he is falling apart.
Aires the Ram
Cammie honey, you may indeed hate Trump, it’s your right to do so, (well, as long as we still have police departments to keep law and order), but your hero Joe baby from Scranton can’t seem to put two sentences together. Did you miss me baby?
kathyjcostello69
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Cam
@Aires the Ram
Translation, Trump lied about a vaccine and the right wing troll account desperately tries to deflect from that fact.
Thank you for always proving my point.
GayEGO
Trump must be mentally ill, he just does not make any sense with his hoopla and fake news.
Den
@the airhead “ram”
Why exactly do right wingers like you seem unable to control lying? Biden, despite occasional gaffes, is so much more adept at speaking (and reading written speeches) than /Trump that your comment is laughable.
Biden can also construct full sentences and cogent paragraphs: a skill Trump seems to have lost entirely over the past 20 or so years. Quite possibly due to the same neurological degeneration that now seems to be affecting his motor skills.
It is sad how disconnected from reality the right is!
ElPillo
@Aires the Ram We got your number. You are a Russian fake troll impersonating a gay American to create trouble and back up lies. Don’t deflect and point elsewhere.
Mister P
They are counting on that 30-40% base that is stupid enough to believe anything he says.
WSnyder
This is what narcissism run a-muck looks like. The arrogant fool won’t take in-depth briefings, won’t bother to listen to anyone knowledgeable or to study any reports. He’s too stupid to understand anything beyond simple maps [if not already altered with Sharpies] or 1-sheet, bullet-pointed [also marked w/ Sharpies- usually with misspelled notes] summaries. He talks off the top of his over quaffed head, saying sh*t, usually lies, he can barely remember 30 mins later. He hates being seen as weak, yet EVERYTHING he does shows just that. He’s made a mockery of the Oval Office, diminished the U.S. standing in the world and through gross negligence and systemic incompetence, killed over 100k American citizens and caused over 43 million unemployed.
Chrisk
Now he wants to kick the 43 million off their benefits in a recession market he created so they’ll take any job at all to be able to live and thus give him his job #s back and re-election assured. That’s his fantasy of coarse.
Dave_Bailey
He only knows to speak in superlatives. Black and white thinking. Although calling it ‘thinking’ might be a stretch.
Harley
The will never be a vaccine for AIDS, not when they can help you live with your condition as long as you give big pharma $10,000 a year to do so.
Chrisk
A cure will come eventually. It just won’t be done in the United States.
CraigBoden
The fact that the world’s richest, most advanced and one of the largest democracies does not have a comprehensive free public health service beggars belief. Most of the rest of the developed (and many developing) countries seem to manage ok. Not much of a surprise that the Orange Flump immediately rolled back as many as President Obama’s health care and other social reforms as soon as he was sworn in, often it seemed just out of spite.
American Pharma, Medical Insurance companies, Hospitals and clinics are ripping off good, decent, hard-working American’s to the tune of many tens or hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
In Australia, Truvada as PrEP is $100 per month for a private script. Generic PrEP subsidised by Medicare is $30 per month. HIV medication is $40 per month, subsidised by Medicare.
Insulin pen / refills for diabetics are about $10 per month.
An eventual vaccine will probably come out of Europe somewhere, possibly joint collaboration / input from Australia / Africa / India – hopefully out of public universities / charitable research foundations / government bodies and keep big pharma out of the picture so that the cost would be affordable / free, hopefully the same for any upcoming COVID-19 vaccine!
Den
There may, in fact never be either a cure or a vaccine for AIDS, but not for the cynical and conspiracy based reasons you imagine.
Vaccines prime the immune system to attack viruses, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to develop one for a pathogen that kills those very cells. And in terms of a cure, it is hard to kill a pathogen that is not really alive; the very reason cures for viral diseases are not as common and widespread as antibiotics.
Virpilosus
Trump’s ignorance beggars the imagination. Those who swallow his verbal swill are the willful participants in a national disgrace.
Hdtex
Trump suffers from untreated late stage syphilitic dementia. His brain looks like Swiss cheese.
GayEGO
Trump has the Trumpavirus – TRUMP-45 and has no idea about what he says, he just says whatever he feels like. Facts do not matter to Trump, he thinks he is getting more votes with his fake news and he ignores science!
MISTERJETT
he’s such an embarrassment to the country. we deserve better!!!
barryaksarben
Please tell me again how smart this man is how he isnt a blowhard fool who is demented
Bubbleandsqueal
Dan and Dee Plorarable are NOT happy that gays can have gay sex without getting sick! They hope Trump is mistaken.
IanHunter
He has the best most remarkable lies.
Heywood Jablowme
Obama said “57 states” once in 2008 when he was tired on the campaign trail, and we never hear the end of it.
Trump says something idiotic every single day.
Den
I actually think that comment was based on the fact that he had visited some states more than once on the same day.
But you are too kind to Trump. It is a good day when he only makes one idiotic statement or tells only one lie.
Den
@ Mr. Gremore:
“Trump told reporters that, while working on the vaccine, the ‘most brilliant’ American scientists and ‘best’ American doctors also stumbled upon a vaccine for AIDS.”
Trump is stupid enough on his own, he does not need you to misunderstand what he said and pass it on as journalism. He believed that a vaccine had already been found (or was lying for some reason other than his usual reasons to lie), not that Covid researchers had stumbled on one.
Sloppy writing makes it even more difficult for people to take your pieces seriously than it already is sometimes.
TomG
NO ONE EVER said that Trump was smart, except of course for Trump himself. And we KNOW how much he lies and that everything he says, the exact opposite is the truth. Therefore Trump is dumber than a rock.
CityguyUSA
PreP is horseshit. Any drug that requires you to wear a condom is just fraud by big pharma. Why spend money on a medication wuth side effects when it’s cheaper to wear a condom and you’ll be better protected.
Now I know some of you will think I’m a conspiracy theorist but it’s only a conspiracy if it’s not true.
I’ve seen 3 viruses, in my lifetime all untreatable, that all seem to have a propensity for eliminating undesirables as seen by the white anglo-saxon old men. it started with HIV and the LGBT community and because those behind it didn’t think it throuh some other populations got pulled into it that theydidn’t expect. The outcry from the LGBT community was unmatched by any protests I’ve ever seen. The quilt is so large it can’t be shown in 1 place. Reagan refused to acknowledge the pandemic most likely because he was behind it and look at how the conservatives thought he shit diamonds until the Great Orange Pumpkin came along only this time the bioweapon was retargeted against the Chinese because of their takeover of the supply chains. What better a way to break China down but they got ahead of the virus omce they admitted that they indeed were facing a serious problem. Why governments want to hide this kind of stuff I just don’t get but they always deny, deny, deny until they just can’t anymore. SARS also having started in China went quickly across the world but didn’t last. These are all from the same genetic material except HIV supposedly originated in Africa from people having sex with mammals. There were quite a few “conspiracy theories” all ultimatelu a rresuly of the US government bringing in German and Russsian war criminals that had done horrid experiments on people during WW2 and the US wanted to continue on with what they called “research’. So clandestanly these people where brought in to the US and paid and never stood trial for their crimes against humanity. The SARS epidemic occurred get again under a conservative President GW Bush who has essentially refused to speak about anything during his presidency but he had a horrid man at his side Dick Cheney that essentially was running the government. I believe someday we will find out was behind 9/11.
Bush essentially was a figurehead in his first term until he realized that he wasbeing manipulated and finally took control from Cheney. One final thought on all these Corona viruses and the mutations. As far as I’m aware all the pandemics before where once and done. I don’t think that there was ever a recorded history of a mutation.
Invader7
WTF are you ranting about??
hansniemeijer
More proof of one of the great countries on the planet having a stoooopid president.
Invader7
Don: anyone is more brilliant than you’ll ever be !! Dumb phuck !!
Invader7
Calling President MELTDOWN.Totally Deranged and deluded !!!! He needs psychiatric meds. STAT !!