Contradicting the most optimistic projections of his own White House health experts, the US President Donald Trump said that it was likely that the United States would have a coronavirus vaccine before the Nov. 3 election.
When asked on the Geraldo Rivera radio program about the availability of an effective COVID-19 vaccine, President Trump said, “Sooner than the end of the year, could be much sooner.”
To a question of whether the vaccine will be ready and available by the time of the elections on November 3rd, he said “I think in some cases, yes possible before, but right around that time,” Trump said.
Amid a U.S. economy crippled by coronavirus shutdowns, Mr. Trump has pushed for schools to reopen and things to get “back to normal” as coronavirus deaths in the country average more than 1,000 per day with an eye on the impending election which could give him a second term.
Top government health officials in the US have said that corners would not be cut in the race to secure a vaccine against the virus.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. government infectious diseases official, has offered a more conservative view in a Reuters interview on Wednesday, saying there might be an indication that at least one vaccine works and is safe by year-end.
Trump was very confident on the U.S. economic recovery once a vaccine is available. “We’re going to have vaccines very soon, we’re gonna have therapeutics very soon,” he told the radio program.
