PHILADELPHIA | US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a vaccine against COVID-19 could be available within a month – an acceleration of his own already surprisingly optimistic predictions – but he added that the pandemic could also wane. go on its own.
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“We are very close to a vaccine,” he said during a question-and-answer session at a town hall with voters in Pennsylvania, broadcast on ABC News.
“We’re a few weeks away from having it, you know – it could be three weeks, four weeks,” he announced.
Hours earlier, speaking on Fox News Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump said a vaccine could be available in “four weeks, it could be eight weeks.”
Democrats have said they are worried about the political pressure put by Donald Trump on government health officials and scientists to rush a vaccine approved, in time to reverse the trend ahead of the ballot between him and Joe Biden on November 3 .
Experts, including US Institute of Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci say vaccine approval is more likely to arrive at the end of the year.
Asked ABC News about his reasons for downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, which has now killed nearly 200,000 Americans, Trump denied, saying, “I didn’t downplay it. In fact, on many things, I overstated its importance in terms of actions taken. “
But President Trump himself had openly told reporter Bob Woodward, during interviews taped for his new book “Rage,” released on Tuesday, that he made a conscious decision to “downplay” the pandemic to avoid worrying Americans too much.
