PHILADELPHIA: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a coronavirus vaccine could be available within a month, an acceleration even from his own surprisingly optimistic predictions, but added that the pandemic could go away on its own.
“We are very close to having a vaccine,” he said in a question and answer session at city hall with voters in Pennsylvania.
Coronavirus Outbreak: Live Updates
“We’re just weeks away from getting it, you know, it could be three or four weeks,” he said.
Just hours earlier Tuesday morning, Trump had said a vaccine could arrive in “four weeks, it could be eight weeks.”
Democrats have raised concerns that Trump is putting political pressure on government health regulators and scientists to pass a rushed vaccine in time to help reverse his uphill re-election campaign against challenger Joe Biden on Nov. 3. .
Experts, including the US government’s top infectious disease physician, Anthony Fauci, say the vaccine is more likely to be approved by the end of the year.
At city hall, Trump was asked why he had downplayed the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States.
Trump responded by saying, “I didn’t downplay it. In fact, in many ways, I took advantage of it in terms of action.”
But Trump himself told journalist Bob Woodward during taped interviews for the new book “Rage,” published Tuesday, that he had deliberately decided to “downplay” it to avoid alarming Americans.
“We are very close to having a vaccine,” he said in a question and answer session at city hall with voters in Pennsylvania.
Coronavirus Outbreak: Live Updates
“We’re just weeks away from getting it, you know, it could be three or four weeks,” he said.
Just hours earlier Tuesday morning, Trump had said a vaccine could arrive in “four weeks, it could be eight weeks.”
Democrats have raised concerns that Trump is putting political pressure on government health regulators and scientists to pass a rushed vaccine in time to help reverse his uphill re-election campaign against challenger Joe Biden on Nov. 3. .
Experts, including the US government’s top infectious disease physician, Anthony Fauci, say the vaccine is more likely to be approved by the end of the year.
At city hall, Trump was asked why he had downplayed the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has now killed nearly 200,000 people in the United States.
Trump responded by saying, “I didn’t downplay it. In fact, in many ways, I took advantage of it in terms of action.”
But Trump himself told journalist Bob Woodward during taped interviews for the new book “Rage,” published Tuesday, that he had deliberately decided to “downplay” it to avoid alarming Americans.
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