https://cdni.rt.com/files/2020.06/xxl/5ee92f9b85f54011c728ebd5.JPG

US President Donald Trump is being savaged for praising the government scientists who’d “come up with the AIDS vaccine,” with his haters holding it up as proof of incipient dementia. But it’s not as outlandish as it sounds.

Trump made the remark during a press conference on Tuesday before signing an executive order on police reform, making a momentary diversion to update reporters on the progress towards a vaccine against Covid-19. Predicting researchers will have “a very successful vaccine, therapeutic, and cure” before the end of 2020, he hailed the “incredible scientists and doctors” who’d come up with “many other cures and therapeutics over the years” – including an AIDS vaccine that doesn’t actually exist.

Pres. Trump: ‘These are the people, the best, the smartest … And they’ve come up with the AIDS vaccine’There is no AIDS vaccine pic.twitter.com/WJRPiLs6lx

The president caught himself, referring instead to “the therapeutic for AIDS” and noting that the disease was once a “death sentence,” but can now be treated “with a pill.” Dozens of drugs are currently marketed to manage HIV infection and stop it from progressing into AIDS, though patient advocates complain many treatments are prohibitively expensive.

Trump’s detractors seized on the moment to unleash their scorn, cracking jokes at the president’s expense.

Fortunately, there is a vaccine for protecting yourself from ignorant, unprepared, emotionally-stunted, racist presidents:Vote.#AIDS

Some insisted the gaffe was evidence of mental deterioration.

Donald Trump-Oh boy…“There’s an AIDS vaccine…”Isn’t there any Republican leadership in the Senate or Congress that are alarmed enough to stand up at this point?#TrumpResignNow#TrumpPressConference#TrumpIsUnwellpic.twitter.com/va4vRVDSlr

Even Trump’s defenders focused on the fact that he’d immediately corrected himself, rather than attempt to back what he’d said.

Trump said there are therapeutic medicines to control HIV / AIDS, correcting himself just moments after saying there was a vaccine for HIV.But to hell with the facts, Jim Acosta.You and CNN clearly have an election to win.Let the Fake News fly. https://t.co/nC7BqtGF6Y

He attempted to try to clarify that immediately. He meant treatments, not a vaccine. You know what he was saying, just stop with the constant picking. It’s annoying

A few, hinting at the failure of previous efforts to develop vaccines against other coronaviruses like SARS, pointed out that decades of dedicated research still hadn’t produced one against AIDS, observing that those mocking Trump nevertheless seemed perfectly comfortable with the notion of staying locked down until a coronavirus shot makes an appearance.

I can’t help but notice many of the people mocking Trump for mentioning an AIDS vaccine, which still hasn’t been discovered after 37 years of research, insist we stay locked down until we find a COVID vaccine, which should be any day now.

All cognitive dissonance aside, trials of a vaccine against HIV are actually underway, with scientists from the National Institutes of Health presenting promising research in March indicating they’d surmounted hurdles that stymied previous efforts at developing one.

However, research on a vaccine against the deadly disease has indeed been ongoing for decades, and a cure has been elusive.

Trump kept his coronavirus options open, promising Covid-19 would cease to be a threat even if his amazing scientists failed to produce the world’s fastest (and least safety-tested) vaccine before the end of the year. “Even without [a vaccine], it goes away,” he told the audience. Over 2.1 million Americans have been infected with the coronavirus as of Tuesday, according to statistics collected by Johns Hopkins University, and over 116,500 people have died with the virus. Some states have begun lifting the lockdowns imposed in March to prevent the spread of the virus, but with tens of millions of Americans unemployed and many small businesses forced to close their doors, the damage has been done.

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