There are hazards, although very few, with keeping a strict separation between church and state at a newspaper. The newsroom at The Democrat-Gazette doesn't guide the opinions on these pages. And the editors/columnists/wise guys who freely express an opinion here don't tell the news reporters what to cover.
We might nod to each other in the elevator, but we don't attend the same meetings.
Which explains why, back on Saturday, this column opined that it might be a good thing that federal health officials are allowing the release of "reserve" vaccines to the public. And why on the same day's front page the news was . . . there are no such vaccines in reserve.
Consider that editorial a swing and a miss. Or as the Nixon people, specifically Ronald L. Ziegler, used to put it: That statement is no longer operative. (Our favorite Zieglerism: "The president is aware of what is going on in southeast Asia. That is not to say anything is going on in southeast Asia.")
During the later part of last week, Alex Azar, none other than the secretary of Health and Human Services, told the press that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccines held in reserve, instead of holding the second doses as boosters for those who received the first shots. And they were going to do exactly what the incoming Biden administration said it was going to do.
After all, the vaccine pipeline was working, and better to get the maximum number of people into the system. Right?
Then Saturday's top-of-the-fold Front Page FLASH article, datelined Washington, D.C.: "The Trump administration already had begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line."
Oy. The federal government's communication in regard to the vaccine rollout keeps getting worse. Add to that, the feds say states have only ordered 75 percent of their allotments. At times it seems like the Keystone Cops are in charge.
Now state officials--who thought their limited doses of vaccines would double this week--have to go back to their citizens to say: Slow down. We're not ready yet.
Governors are said to be angry. We don't blame them. We still haven't heard any good reason/excuse/explanation why the Cabinet secretary in charge of the vaccine rollout could be so wrong about what was in storage and what has already been distributed. It sounds like he was getting bad information from his own people.
Over the weekend the papers said that Alex Azar had resigned, but in the traditional way of tending his resignation to the sitting president so the job will be open after the swearing-in of the new president. As of this writing the secretary says he plans to stay on until the last minute of the Trump administration, which is noon Wednesday.
We're not sure if a resignation--for cause--by the head of the federal HHS would do much good at this point anyway. It might slow down things even more. But the American people certainly seem to want answers about this blunder.
When it comes to any vaccine, but especially one created under what the government called Operation Warp Speed, trust in the authorities is a must. This latest episode will likely only erode that trust. Unless this editorial is rendered inoperative by news on today's front page.