THE VACCINE GOALPOST WILL BE MOVED

I don't have much to add to the saturation coverage of Andrew Cuomo, who won't resign, but should (and will, I hope, be impeached and removed from office). I'll leave that story to others for now. I just want to say something about this instead:

With a new surge of Covid-19 infections ripping through much of the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has accelerated its timetable to fully approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, aiming to complete the process by the start of next month, people involved in the effort said.

President Biden said last week that he expected a fully approved vaccine in early fall. But the F.D.A.’s unofficial deadline is Labor Day or sooner, according to multiple people familiar with the plan. The agency said in a statement that its leaders recognized that approval might inspire more public confidence and had “taken an all-hands-on-deck approach” to the work....

A number of universities and hospitals, the Defense Department and at least one major city, San Francisco, are expected to mandate inoculation once a vaccine is fully approved. Final approval could also help mute misinformation about the safety of vaccines and clarify legal issues about mandates.

I hope this leads to an increase in vaccination. Some vaccine-hesitant people really might be swayed by full approval.

But the hardcore holdouts won't be persuaded. They'll move the goalposts from "Why would you risk your health on a vaccine the government calls 'experimental'?" To "Why would you trust the government when approval was rushed?" They'll become instant experts on the usual time frame for an FDA approval and they'll tell us that corners were cut. They'll holler about the government's VAERS site, where people can post unvetted claims about health problems resulting from vaccines. They'll claim a massive cover-up of adverse effects. Oh, and they'll say that approval is a way of lining Anthony Fauci's pockets or advancing the Bill Gates/George Soros plan to depopulate the planet.

I hope a lot of people quietly get vaccinated after full approval. But the loudest voices will be the ones insisting the vaccine still isn't safe. They'll never change their minds.