Here comes Santa Claus, and, say, is he moving to the head of the vaccination line?

I'm all for public service announcements (PSAs).

When I was a kid, people littered. You would routinely see folks tossing bottles, cans, kleenex, whatever out their car windows. Not in my family, thank you. We were in the vanguard. The only thing we were allowed to pitch out the window was an apple core, and that was because the birds would eat it.

Despite our efforts, there was always a ton of the trash on the side of roads and highways. And on sidewalks in my neighborhood, you could always find empty cigarette packs and candy wrappers. (If you saw a discarded Lucky Strikes pack, you could step on it and whack the kid you were with on the arm and shout "Lucky strike!")

There's a classic scene on Mad Men that shows the Draper family getting up from their picnic blanket, shaking it - and all the trash on it - out on the grass, and taking off.

Then came the Don't Be a Litter Bug campaign. And, while there's still plenty of trash to be found - and a lot more trash possibilities, given fast food which wasn't a factor in my childhood -  you really don't see people littering like they used to.

Smoky the Bear, unfortunately, has not been able to keep up with the fires out West (thanks, climate change!), but we all do know that if we carelessly discard a cigarette butt, things might well go up in frames.

And speaking of cigarette butts, PSAs about quitting or just not starting smoking helped decrease the number of smokers.

So PSAs. Yeah, I'm all for them.

In fact, I'd love see more PSAs about mask wearing, social distancing, handwashing, and crowd avoidance. 

But given that the Federal government (at least as far as the White House is concerned) has pretty much surrendered on the idea of containing COVID-19 - as Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows stated on the Sunday morning talking heads shows yesterday - I wouldn't expect them to get behind a decent, thoughtful, publicly spirited, public health campaign.

After all, they're counting on therapeutics to keep the sick from dying, and the on-the-horizon (somewhere, somehow) vaccine to keep us from getting sick to begin with.

Still, it's a bit of a surprise that a good part of the $250M advertising campaign that the Department of Health and Human Services was cooking up was focused on getting Santa Claus performers to promote vaccination in return for early access to said vaccine. 

Well, bah humbug to that, even though Mrs. Claus and the elves - also deemed essential workers by HHS - were going to get to jump to the head of the line, too.

This was all premised on the Trumpian emptier-than-empty promise that we were going to have a vaccine by election day. 

Alas, the Santa-vaccine plan has been trashed - probably via littering, knowing these guys - and Michael Caputo, the HHS assistant secretary who came up with the idea is on medical leave. (He went on leave after becoming embroiled in some brouhaha that's long since forgotten.)

The Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas aren't thrilled to hear that the vaccine won't be available in time for them to get those kiddos on their laps, and that they won't be able to jump the line to get it. (Not that seasonal workers shouldn't have priority over some categories. I just can't figure out just what categories a seasonal Santa should have priority over.)

Rick Erwin, who heads up the Real Beardeds, recorded the calls he had with Caputo to discuss this initiative.

Caputo seemed really excited about the prospect of making the president happy with his plan. “I cannot wait to tell the president,” Caputo said. “He’s going to love this.” (Source: Slate)

Well, that's true. It does seem like the sort of thing Trump would love. Showy and attention grabbing. (Santa!) Lacking in true substance. (Santa!) Skirting the real issue. (No national co-ordinated plan on anything -> people dying.) Based on wishful thinking. (Vaccine by November!) Science-denying. (Vaccine by November!)

Like I said, I'm all for a good PSA. I'm guessing that there are plenty of agencies that would be delighted to do one for free, and plenty of outlets willing to run them gratis. But why would the Trump administration start doing something rational and sensible now?

Welcome to the holiday season! Looks like it's gonna be a fun one. 

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Meanwhile, Pink Slip has a small history with professional Santas. Many years ago, I wrote about some feuding in their ranks. The post got a number of comments, and I had to remove a few because they were libelous. A few years later, the Santas were at it again. And I hate to say it, but I'm guessing most Santas are Trump supporters...