Volunteer State: It Would Seem Trump's Endorsement Is No Longer Golden

As we noted yesterday, those crazy kids in Tennessee hold their primaries on Thursdays. Most states do it on Tuesdays, because it's a tradition established by the Constitution. Some states and territories do it on a weekend day, because that is when most people are off work. But Tennesseans shun both tradition and convenience. They have ever since Davy Crockett killed a b'ar when he was only three.

Although Tennessee is a red state, and is near-certain to give the Republicans a sweep of statewide and federal offices in November, there were some results of interest yesterday. To start, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R) is now her party's nominee for governor, and will become the first woman to lead the state when she wins in November. The primary was surprisingly close, however. Rep. John Rose (R) ran his campaign based on being an "outsider" (a curious way to describe someone who is serving his fourth term in Congress) and a "TRUE Tennesseean" (he is eighth-generation, whereas Blackburn was born in Mississippi). The Senator took 43.4% of the vote, the Representative took 32.9% and the rest went to state Rep. Monty Fritts (R) and a bunch of write-in candidates. We imagine that the deciding factor, since both Blackburn and Rose are MAGA (or at least pretend to be) is that a senator has wider name recognition than a representative.

The Democrat in that race will be Memphis councilor Jerri Green, who won a more comfortable victory, taking 69.0% of the vote as compared to 17.9% for second-place finisher Carnita Atwater. Green is running on a standard centrist Democrat platform—more money for schools and health care, moderate gun control and environmental policies, and avoid hot-button issues like the plague (except that she is pro-choice). It's not impossible she could win, since Tennessee has elected a Democrat to the governor's mansion this century (in 2006), but it's not very likely. There's been only one recent poll of the Blackburn-Green matchup, and it gives the Senator a 21-point lead, 49% to 28%.

Even less likely is a Democratic win in the U.S. Senate race. There, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R) was unopposed in his primary, and took 99.6% of the vote, with a few hundred folks wasting their ballots on write-in candidates. He will face Marquita Bradshaw (D), who took 54.8% of the vote in a five-way field. She is an environmental activist, and was the first Black woman to win a major-party nomination in a statewide race in Tennessee (she was also Hagerty's opponent in 2020). That it took until the 2020s for that to happen probably suggests something about the political prospects of a Black woman running for statewide office in Tennessee. Nobody has spent the money to poll this matchup yet, but we can tell you that about 630,000 Republicans showed up to vote yesterday, as compared to about 350,000 Democrats. This does not bode well for Bradshaw or Green.

The most notable result of the night actually came in TN-05. There, Rep. Andy Ogles (R) was running for reelection to a third term. He had Donald Trump's enthusiastic endorsement, up to and including the President making a couple of campaign appearances in the district. On the other hand, Ogles has a habit of saying impolitic things; in just the past few months, he tweeted: "Muslims don't below [sic] in American society" and "homosexuality has no place in America." Come to think of it, this may be why he has Trump's enthusiastic endorsement. Ogles was also accused of breaking campaign finance laws, though the Trump Department of Justice quietly dropped that investigation, which it inherited from the Biden administration.

When the dust had settled last night, Ogles came close to hanging on, but no cigar. Charlie Hatcher (R), who was once the state's agriculture commissioner, claimed 53.2% of the vote, as compared to 46.8% for the Representative. Hatcher will face off against Mayor Chaz Molder (D) of Columbia, who took 40.5% of the vote in his primary, enough to beat out Memphis councilor Yolanda Cooper-Sutton (D) and her 32.7%. Molder is, as you might imagine, Blue Doggy. And when he puts his glasses on, he looks like Clark Kent:

Democrats actually view this as their best chance to hold a seat in Tennessee. If so, Molder is going to need to find some kryptonite to use against Hatcher, because the district is R+10. That actually makes it the second "bluest" district in the state, just behind the R+9 TN-09, which was redrawn to kick Rep. Steve Cohen (D) out of office.

That's two times this week that Trump has backed a House candidate and had that candidate go up in flames. The one in Tennessee is a black eye for the President because he really tried to muscle Ogles over the finish line. The one in Michigan was a different kind of black eye, because Trump wasn't nearly as involved in that race, but his candidate, Amir Hassan, got crushed by someone who had dropped out a month earlier (though Thomas J. Smith has now dropped back in).

The widespread supposition has been that a Black guy named Amir Hassan cannot win a Republican primary, even if he is former military and former law enforcement and very conservative. The widespread supposition about Ogles is that his bigotry was just a bridge too far for too many Republican voters. It is not easy to reconcile these two conclusions; one candidate lost because of Republican voters' bigotry, one candidate lost because of Republican voters' anti-bigotry. It is not impossible to reconcile the two conclusions, mind you, just tricky.

What is definitely the case is that the people who run Republican political campaigns think that bigotry works with their voters. In support of this assertion, we give you the first day of the GOP campaign to defeat Abdul El-Sayed (D) in Michigan. Almost overnight, the GOP has taken to referring to him as Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. The Party did the same thing, of course, with Barack Hussein Obama, although in this case, the candidate really is a Muslim.

The NRSC has also released its first anti-El-Sayed ad, which is entitled "The Most Radical Candidate in America," and which you can view here:

It is remarkable that they managed to squeeze so many different propaganda techniques into a 30-second spot. It would not be difficult at all to build an entire 2-hour lecture and discussion of propaganda using only this ad as source material. The ad is so frantic and over the top that although the low-information base voters who live in fear of Muslim terrorists hiding under their beds may be petrified by it, we are less sure that independents—at least the ones who are rational and like the Democrats on social policy but the Republicans on taxes and jobs—will fall for it.

The RNC has also released a "fact sheet" about El-Sayed. Under the heading "Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Is [sic] A Terrorist Sympathizer Who Wants To Take A Sledgehammer To America, Believes America Deserved 9/11, And Let [sic] Terrorists Run The Show," they offer up the following "facts," accompanied by links to (almost invariably) right-wing "news" sites, primarily Fox and The Washington Free Beacon:

• EL-SAYED HATES AMERICA
• EL-SAYED IS A TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER
• PRO-CRIMINAL EL-SAYED WANTS TO DEFUND LAW ENFORCEMENT
• EL-SAYED IS A DANGEROUS SOCIALIST
• EL-SAYED IS A CHRONIC LIAR
• EL-SAYED HAS A DOUBLE STANDARD FOR HIM AND MICHIGAN VOTERS
• EL-SAYED IS AN ANTISEMITE

Eventually, this over-the-top cartoon-villain stuff has to backfire, right? In any event, it's going to be an ugly, ugly campaign.

Next up, voting-wise, is Hawaii. The results there will be similar to the ones in Tennessee, except with the other party dominating. Oh, and no Trump endorsee will lose, because the President does not endorse in that state as a means of protecting his batting average. (Z)

In Congress, Part I: At Least McConnell Is There in Spirit

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), or someone acting in his name, released a statement yesterday announcing that the Senator has been discharged from the rehab facility he was staying in, and that he will now be rehabbing from home. "On the advice of my doctors, I'll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I'll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business," the statement reads, in part.

It is improbable, at this point, that he's dead or in a vegetative state. First, too many people would have to be involved in the conspiracy to keep it going. Second, if the point is to pretend he's alive long enough to prevent a special election from being held, that deadline passed a few days ago. Third, if you're going to suddenly share the truth of his demise, then you would share news that says he's going downhill (e.g., "McConnell was rushed to the ICU today"), not news that suggests he's getting better. All of this said, it seems very probable at this point that whatever happened to the Senator, it has either affected his facial appearance, his voice, his cognitive functions, or some combination of the above. This is the only good explanation for why he'd be willing to pose for photos, but not willing to do any sort of interview.

In any case, it means that McConnell's seat will remain effectively empty until he's able to return to Washington. The Senator (or his people, at least) refused to offer up any sort of timeline, so don't discount the possibility that he never actually comes back, or that he doesn't come back until after the midterms. This is unfortunate news for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), because while McConnell said he's there in spirit, spirits don't get to vote in the Senate. And Thune could really use another generally reliable party-line voter right now.

The GOP Senate Conference is a mess right now, even more so than is normally the case. There are, in effect, three problems. The first of those is that the GOP senators want to spend money, but they aren't agreed on how to do it. A reconciliation bill would be un-filibusterable, but would be open to lots of amendments, which would give the Democrats opportunities to put the GOP Senators on the record on unpopular issues (say, the $1.8 billion slush fund) right before an election. As you might imagine, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is the loudest opponent of doing it this way. A normal budget bill, with money for the military and for farmers, might get enough Democratic votes in the Senate to pass. But it won't have all the goodies that some Republicans, including the Republican in the White House, want.

That brings us to the second problem. Donald Trump refuses to be realistic about what can actually be done in a reconciliation bill (Hint: NOT the SAVE Act). And he refuses to lift a finger to whip votes for a bill that does not meet his exact requirements. It is not easy to get a party-line (or near party-line) bill passed when the leader of the party refuses to get involved.

And then there is the third problem. After today, the senators are scheduled to be out of town until September 14. They all want that vacation, particularly during the worst part of the year when it comes to D.C.'s climate. And, of course, once September 14 rolls around, there won't be that many days left before the midterms, or before the end of this Congress. Especially since they are also not scheduled to be in session from October 3 through November 8, so that members up for reelection can campaign. To put a finer point on it, after today, the Senate has 14 working days scheduled before Election Day and another 22 scheduled before this Congress ends. That's not much.

Consequently, even though Thune has warned that a legislative "train wreck" could be coming, he has scheduled several votes for today. The senators will vote on Russia sanctions, on several nominations for federal office, and on a kick-the-can budget bill. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is going to try to get the ball rolling on a reconciliation bill, but the odds seem long. More importantly, though, it looks more and more like the GOP majority isn't going to get anything substantive done before the midterms, and will have to run on what's already been accomplished by them and their party. That basically boils down to "a big tax cut bill, and fewer border crossings." That is also a description of what the GOP ran on in 2018, and everyone knows how those midterms worked out for the red team. (Z)

In Congress, Part II: Who Cares About the Fifth Amendment, and All That Constitution Jazz?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is supposed to be a libertarian. Yes, he has an (R) by his name, but that's because you can't get elected as an (L)—too bad for the staff legal expert. And a libertarian is supposed to care about civil liberties—it's literally right there in the name. But apparently, that does not matter when there are personal grudges in play, because yesterday Paul muscled through a "successful" contempt of Congress vote against Dr. Anthony Fauci.

As a reminder, Fauci appeared before the Paul-led Senate Homeland Security Committee last week. After reading a statement in which he asserted (correctly, by all indications) that this was just political theater, either meant to entrap him or to give Republicans soundbites for the elections (or both), he refused to answer any questions, and pleaded the Fifth over a hundred times. This left Paul steaming mad.

With relatively few options at his disposal, Paul persuaded all of the Republicans on his committee to vote to refer Fauci to the Department of Justice to face potential charges. The Senator did not refer the matter to the whole Senate; their time is very limited right now (see above), and he may have had reason to believe that the votes weren't there.

Although this may seem like a legal item, and the province of the aforementioned (L), it's really not. It is exceedingly unlikely this will go anywhere, for three main reasons. The first is that while it may sound very official to have a committee (or the whole Senate) vote to refer someone for contempt of Congress charges, it doesn't really mean anything. You can contact the Department of Justice right here, if you want, and make your own referral. The DOJ has no obligation to act on such a referral, whether it is from a random person on the Internet or from a Senate committee.

The second problem is that the core of the legal argument, being made by the ophthalmologist Paul, is that Fauci got a pardon from Joe Biden, that he is therefore immune to criminal charges, and that he is therefore unable to invoke the Fifth. However, Fauci could still face state-level charges (and, indeed, Florida is thinking about trying it). Further, he could plausibly face charges for things that happened in the 18 months since the pardon was issued. If Fauci tells a judge that he was concerned that someone who openly and repeatedly said he wanted Fauci to be imprisoned might try to find a way to get Fauci imprisoned, a judge is likely to find that compelling.

The third problem is that even if Fauci was wrong to invoke the Fifth, that probably doesn't rise to the level of contempt. Paul's best plausible outcome here (and even this is a long shot), is that a judge says that Fauci was wrong, there are some appeals, and then maybe he has to return to the Senate to be questioned again, this time without invoking the Fifth. If so, that will only happen if the Republicans keep the Senate and Paul keeps his chairmanship. Further, Fauci is clever enough to give non-answer answers to questions, if that is what he absolutely has to do. For example, he could pull a Marshawn Lynch, and answer every question with: "I am here because a judge says I have to be here." Not pleading the Fifth, and not perjury either, but not giving Paul what he wants.

In truth, this story is a political item, which is why (Z) is handling it. It will be very interesting to see what acting AG Todd Blanche does with this referral. On one hand, he has absolutely no problem using his office in service of personal and partisan goals. On the other hand, the high-profile, embarrassing losses are piling up, and a high-profile, embarrassing loss is a very probable outcome here. Also, Blanche has thus far used and abused his powers in service of Donald Trump's needs, not in service of the needs of the GOP. And Trump hates Paul, while Fauci is not among Trump's top 200 bugaboos.

What we are suggesting here is that if Blanche acts on the referral, then he's making clear that he's a partisan actor who will try to help the Republican Party's fortunes however he can. On the other hand, if Blanche takes a pass, it strongly suggests that he's really just Trump's personal lawyer, and that the GOP only gets the benefit of Blanche's corruption in those cases where Trump is the main beneficiary, and his party is just along for the ride. (Z)

Legal News: Judge Hits Trump Where the Sun Does Shine

When the government detains a non-citizen under immigration law, it is a civil detention. In other words, the person has not committed a crime, and instead is detained under civil immigration statutes. Typically, a non-citizen who is apprehended at the border is subject to mandatory detention without bond unless they can show they are entitled to be admitted. And up until the current presidential administration, non-citizens present in the country's interior could be detained at DHS' discretion under a different provision of immigration law, but were entitled to a bond hearing to secure their release. Mandatory detention was only for those who had committed a crime.

However, starting in 2025, Stephen Miller Donald Trump decided that when Congress amended the immigration statutes in 1996, it eliminated the government's discretion and made detention mandatory without bond for all non-citizens not previously admitted, no matter where they are found, and shifted the burden to them to prove they're entitled to stay. And apparently, Congress did this without telling a soul and allowed every subsequent administration to carry on with its detention policy as if nothing had changed.

The Seventh and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal are the latest appellate courts to be asked to weigh in, and are the latest to tell Trump and DHS that their new interpretation of the law is wrong. Or more pointedly, "We add but a few more drops of ink to the gallons already spilled," Judge Joshua Kolar, a Joe Biden appointee, wrote in the Seventh Circuit opinion. Judge Daniel Bress, a Trump appointee, wrote the Ninth Circuit opinion. They join four other appeals courts and more than 460 district court judges who have rejected Trump's policy. Only two appeals courts have upheld the mass detentions.

Bress was, if anything, even firmer in his ruling than Kolar. He wrote: "The implication of the government's position is that Congress in 1996 made a major change to the immigration laws by subjecting millions of unadmitted aliens present in the United States to mandatory detention, but that this change then went unnoticed and unheeded, with the Executive Branch for the next three decades..."

The Judge also pointed out that Congress has since added to the list of qualifying events for which "aliens" present in the interior without admission can be subject to mandatory detention. If, as the White House claims, all non-citizens present in the interior without admission are subject to mandatory detention, then what's the point of creating exceptions and expanding the list of crimes for which these same non-citizens may be detained? There is none. In fact, the latest expansion of the list of crimes was in the Laken Riley Act, passed in 2025. If Congress believed that the law was being misinterpreted and agreed with Trump's reading, they could have streamlined the law and had one provision mandating detention without bond for every non-citizen present who had not been admitted. But they did not.

The Ninth Circuit covers nine western states, including the very sunny states of California, Arizona, and Nevada, where many non-citizens are being held, often in deplorable conditions with much heat and not enough water. People held in detention in any of these states who were arrested under the mass detention policy are now entitled to a bond hearing. This could also relieve some of the pressure on district courts that have been inundated with habeas corpus petitions, which is the only recourse to secure release without the availability of a bond hearing.

The big question, of course, is "What will the Supreme Court do?" We've already seen the so-called "Kavanaugh stops," after the Republican majority on the Court blessed stopping and detaining people based on their accents, skin color and place of employment. Mass detentions don't seem to trouble them, civil rights be damned. But when it comes to ascertaining Congressional intent in a particular statutory provision, that could be seen as more of an intellectual exercise as opposed to a humanitarian one (which they seem to view with distaste). They haven't taken up the issue yet, but petitions for certiorari are pending from the Sixth Circuit's decision (striking down the policy) and the 5th Circuit's decision (agreeing with Trump). So, stay tuned. (L)

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Obama Library in Chicago Is a Hit... And Run

It would seem that the only thing harder than getting an Odyssey IMAX ticket these days is getting a ticket to the Barack Obama Presidential Center. Not too much of a surprise; he is popular, and the library is new and shiny, and a lot of people live in and around Chicago. There is, however, at least one Chicagoan who is not a fan. He drove up to the library this week, in a brown van, and ran over all the signs telling people where to park, and then took off. We suspect he will soon learn that a facility that requires all salaried employees to have a security clearance just might have a camera or two covering the grounds of the facility.

For last week's headline theme, we had two clues, separated by two days. First up was: "[T]he key word in the first headline is NOT 'Donald,' as Donald Trump will never, ever qualify to be a part of this theme, no matter how much he (and FIFA?) wishes it was otherwise." Second was: "We already said Donald Trump does not fit the theme. But there are four presidents who do fit (along with one VP), though we did not use any of those five. Oh, and one of those presidents is still living, as is the VP."

And here is the solution, courtesy of reader M.D. in South Haven, MI:

Unlike Donald Trump, these are all Nobel Peace Prize winners...

• TrumpWatch 2026: King Donald Will Get His Way on Blanche—Martin Luther King Jr. (1964)
• Legal Bytes: Call the Red Cross, Because the DOJ Is Bruised and Bleeding—The International Committee of the Red Cross (1917, 1944, 1963)
• Governors, Part I: Mandela Barnes Is Out in Wisconsin—Nelson Mandela (1993)
• Governors, Part II: Control of the House Could Begin, and End, with These Four Races—Menachem Begin (1978; with Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat)
• I Read the News Today, Oh Boy: Bourgeois Paranoia—Léon Bourgeois (1920)
• This Week in Schadenfreude: State Department Gets Fried by AI—Alfred Fried (1911; with Tobias Asser)
• This Week in Freudenfreude: Getting to the Root of the Problem, Literally—Elihu Root (1912)

We added Barack Obama with the headline of this item. He is, of course, one of the four presidents referred to in the second clue, along with Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter. The VP is Al Gore. We had a couple of readers write in and point out that VP Charles Dawes also won, while TR was both a president and a VP. We did not update the clue because we thought that would make it less helpful rather than more so.

Here are the first 60 readers to get it right:

H.B. in State College, PA M.M. in Dunellen, NJ W.V. in San Jacinto, CA L.H. in Manchester, England, UK D.M. in Oakland, CA M.A. in Soquel, CA K.H. in Ypsilanti, MI P.A. in Redwood City, CA M.S. in Canton, NY M.W. in Altea, Spain G.M. in Arlington, VA P.H. in Fort Lauderdale, FL S.K. in Henderson, NV C.W. in Atlantic Beach, FL A.C. in Kingston, MA S.G. in Durham, NC M.V. in Oak Park, IL S.M. in Milford, MA M.H. in Ottawa, ON, Canada B.B. in Avon, CT S.K. in Ardmore, PA S.K. in Bethesda, MD M.K. in Long Branch, NJ H.B. in Santiago, Chile S.W. in Winter Garden, FL N.T. in Le Perreux-sur-Marne, France J.H. in Flint, MI E.W. in Skaneateles, NY S.T. in Coventry, England, UK J.H. in Lake Forest, CA

B.G. in Houston, TX C.G. in Knoxville, TN S.B. in Palm Harbor, FL N.H. in London, England, UK J.N. in Zionsville, IN L.W. in Los Angeles, CA M.S. in New York City, NY M.B. in Albany, NY R.S. in Landing, NJ L.R. in Columbia, MO D.P. in Mt. Rainier, MD K.R. in Austin, TX M.D. in South Haven P.L. in Skövde, Sweden K.S. in Jefferson City, MO Z.K. in Albany, NY T.B. in Los Angeles, CA J.J. in New York City, NY A.B. in Miami Beach, FL K.P. in Paris, France C.C. in Chicago, IL L.M. in Springfield, IL M.M. in Jacksonville, FL A.S. in Kansas City, MO S.S. in Milwaukee, WI J.K. in Seattle, WA P.R. in Vancouver, BC, Canada E.D. in Houston, TX H.F. in Denver, CO F.F. in Springfield, MA

The 60th correct response was received at 3:20 p.m. PT on Monday.

For this week's theme, it relies on one word per headline, and it's in the category Language. For a hint, we'll say that if the aforementioned Davy Crockett wasn't dead, and was playing along, he would probably be the first person to send in a correct response.

If you have a guess, send it to comments@electoral-vote.com with subject line August 7 Headlines. (Z)

This Week in Schadenfreude: Some People Have a Very Black Sense of Humor

Not that we're judging, mind you.

Sergio Furnari is, ostensibly, an artist. And he is also a prime illustration of the old adage that a fool and his money are soon parted. After the murder of Charlie Kirk, Furnari decided that what the market really wanted was a large, expensive statue of Kirk as he was just moments before a bullet took his life. So, Furnari sunk tens of thousands of dollars into his vision, finished the work, slapped a price tag of $100,000 on it, and waited for the buyers to start lining up.

The problem is that they did not line up. Nary a one. Furnari has not gotten a single offer, not for full price, not an opening bid, not a lowball offer. Well, that is not entirely true. He has reportedly received quite a few offers from people who are willing to urinate on the statue. Maybe the artist should try to monetize that. (Z) once went to a county fair where someone had bought a junker for a few hundred dollars, and was letting people swing a sledgehammer at it, three swings for five bucks. People were lining up. That guy made a mint.

The remarkable thing is that Furnari doesn't even like Kirk, and takes particular umbrage with Kirk's views on Palestine. How can you possibly believe you understand the mindset of cultists if you are not yourself a member of the cult, or at least cult-adjacent? That would be like one of us deciding that what people in Argentina really want is a book about Juan Manuel de Rosas, the strongman politician who died in 1877. How could we possibly know if there's a market for that? Hence our observation about a fool and his money. By the way, Furnari thinks the problem is that people are, to use his word, "cheap."

That said, even people much closer to Kirk's orbit are having trouble squeezing what they want out of his death. For a period of time, immediately after the shooting, there was much supposition on the right that Kirk would be a martyr, and that his death would unify MAGA in opposition to the evil lib'ruls responsible for his death. Basically, JFK for the 21st-century-bigot set.

Needless to say, this is not what has happened. Kirk was actually on the fringes of the Republican Party and of MAGA (and we mean "fringes" on multiple levels). His passing was not all that important in many corners of MAGA-world. And the places where it WAS important are populated by wild-eyed conspiratorial types, like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. And so, instead of unity, the folks who are still thinking about Kirk's death are arguing bitterly among themselves over how their pet conspiracy theory is obviously right, and everyone else's pet conspiracy theories are obviously loony.

This, by the way, is what always happens with extremist movements. They eventually break down into different factions, each of them pointing fingers at the others for not being extreme enough, or for being extreme in the wrong way. Could very well be a preview for what happens with the larger MAGA movement once Donald Trump exits the political stage. (Z)

This Week in Freudenfreude: This White Powder Isn't Cocaine

We find the news stories that we use for this feature in a lot of different ways. However, the way that we stumbled on this one is... not the usual. On Wednesday, during a normal appointment, (Z)'s doctor observed that he hadn't had a tetanus shot in 10 years, and that it would be wise to have a booster. So, it was done, and the nurse who administered the shot said, "Your arm may hurt a bit." It would have been more accurate to say, "Your arm may feel like it's going to fall off because it was hit with a Patriot missile."

It's basically OK now, but some googling to see if that was within the realm of "basically normal" led to a very interesting scientific study. One of the biggest issues in vaccination, particularly in poorer countries, even more particularly in poorer hot countries, is refrigeration. Most vaccines have to be kept at a fairly low temperature, which significantly increases both transportation and storage costs. And even then, about half of vaccines go into the garbage, because it was not possible to maintain temperature control until the time the vaccine was administered. To use the parlance of medical and activist groups, the "cold chain" is broken.

Consequently, the U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which is not run by an anti-vaxx loon, decided to try something new. Taking note of plants that "die" during droughts, but then come back to life when water was available, they dried out a large batch of the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine using trehalose (a sugar that absorbs moisture). Then, the folks at NIHR stored the now-powdered vaccine at room temperature for a year. Once the year was up, they added the water back, put the vaccine in syringes, and inoculated 60 people. Those 60 people's arms probably hurt a lot, but the rehydrated vaccine worked just as well as it would have before it was dried out.

The next phase is a slightly larger clinical trial (160 people). If all goes well, the "fridge-free" vaccine could be on the fast-track to widespread use. The drug is already approved for use, and the drying and rehydrating does not require new approvals in most nations. And while the trehalose technique won't work with mRNA vaccines, it theoretically should work with a large number of others, as well as many non-vaccine medicines that currently need to be refrigerated. This could be very good news indeed for the billions of people who live in countries where people do not have the luxury of being anti-vaxx and anti-science.

Have a good weekend, all! (Z)

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