Geraldo Rivera Proposes Naming Coronavirus Vaccine After Donald Trump and Social Media Lights Up

Geraldo Rivera knows President Donald Trump is unhappy about the election results and has an idea to help ease his transition out of office: name the coronavirus vaccine after him. “I had an idea. With the world so divided, and everybody telling him he’s gotta give up and time to leave and time to transition, why not name the vaccine the Trump?” Rivera said with a smile while on Fox News‘ Fox & Friends Friday morning. “Make it like, ‘Have you gotten your Trump yet?’ It would be a nice gesture to him and years from now; it would become kind of a generic name.”

“‘Have you got your Trump yet?’ ‘I got my Trump, I’m fine.’ I wished we could honor him in that way,” Rivera continued, calling Trump the “prime architect” of Operation Warp Speed, which pumped money into U.S. vaccine manufacturing and distribution. “But for him, we’d still be waiting into the grim winter for these amazing, miraculous medical breakthroughs,” Rivera concluded.

Last week, Trump wrongfully claimed credit for Pfizer’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine was effective; in fact, the drug maker did not accept government money for the project. Rivera, a longtime friend of Trump, frequently laments the post-election timing of announcements from Pfizer and Moderna that their vaccines were proving effective. Pfizer announced its news two days after Joe Biden was declared the President-elect — almost a full week after voting stopped — and Moderna announced its news on Monday.

Social media is having a field day with Rivera’s suggestion that a COVID-19 vaccine be named after the president. Continue reading to see what Twitter has to say.

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Pfizer announced that its initial Phase 3 clinical trial results show its vaccine, being developed in partnership with BioNTech, is more than 90% effective. Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, said the results put us a “significant step closer” in the race to create a vaccine and slow the spread of the virus.

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A week later, Moderna issued a similar announcement, saying that its vaccine was 94.5% effective, according to Phase 3 clinical trial results. “This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate,” Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said in a statement. “This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease.”

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On Friday, Pfizer will ask for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of its vaccine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The vaccine, which is called BNT162b2, is composed of RNA, a key molecule in cellular protein synthesis. 

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Pfizer and BioNTech’s joint inducted network can help supplies reach about 50 million vaccine doses globally in 2020, and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021. Initial doses will ideally go toward high-risk populations, including frontline workers and elderly people, by the middle to end of December.

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Notably, BNT162b2 must be stored and transported at extremely cold temperatures, which caused pharmaceutical companies to launch a pilot test delivery of the vaccine to four states in the U.S.: Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico and Tennessee. Pfizer said those states were selected due to their differences in size, populations, immunization infrastructure and need to reach individuals in urban and rural settings. Those states will not receive vaccine doses earlier than other states, nor will they receive any differential consideration.