speaks during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the
White House on September 16, 2020, in Washington, DC. MANDEL NGAN /
AFP
President Donald Trump expressed renewed
confidence Wednesday that a viable Covid-19 vaccine would be ready
by October, directly contradicting a top administration health
expert and facing fierce criticism from his Democratic election
rival Joe Biden.
Trump sowed confusion about the issue with an extraordinary
public rebuke of one of his top health experts who said masks were
a leading weapon for fighting the pandemic and that a vaccine was
unlikely to be widely available until mid-2021.
“I think he made a mistake when he said that. That’s just
incorrect information,” Trump told reporters referring to
Senate testimony by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
director Robert Redfield.
“We’re very close to that vaccine as you know… We think we can
start sometime in October” or shortly
thereafter, Trump said.
“I believe he was confused,” he said of Redfield. “I am just
telling you we are ready to go as soon as the vaccine happens.”
Redfield told lawmakers Wednesday that a “very limited”
distribution to priority groups including first responders could
begin in November and December, but that full implementation would
take many more months at least.
“I think we’re probably looking at late second quarter, third
quarter 2021” before a safe and effective vaccine would be
available to the general public, he added.
Redfield tweeted his support for a potential vaccine Wednesday
evening, but cautioned Americans to be vigilant about mitigating
viral spread in the meantime.
“The best defense we currently have against this virus are the
important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing your hands,
social distancing and being careful about crowds. #COVID19”
The contradiction between Trump and health experts on
an issue that has become a focal point of the 2020 election
campaign highlighted the lack of trust Biden said he and the public
have in the president’s handling of the pandemic, which has killed
nearly 200,000 Americans.
“When I said I trust vaccines, and I trust the scientists, but I
don’t trust Donald Trump — this is what I meant,” Biden
tweeted after Trump’s remarks.
Barely an hour earlier the Democratic
nominee said Trump’s refusal to take key steps to tackle
the pandemic, like instituting national guidelines on social
distancing and testing, were “utterly disqualifying” for the
presidency.
The Democratic nominee, speaking after receiving a briefing by
public health experts, said he supported a rapid Covid-19 vaccine
to help American life return to normal, but said the process should
be guided by science and safety, not politics.
‘He’s the president’
On Tuesday Trump accelerated his own already
optimistic predictions, saying a vaccine may be available even
before the November 3 presidential election.
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“We’re within weeks of getting it, you know — could be three
weeks, four weeks,” he told a town hall question-and-answer session
with voters in Pennsylvania aired on ABC.
Democrats have expressed concern that Trump is
pressuring government health regulators and scientists to approve a
rushed vaccine in time to help his uphill bid for reelection.
Trump also raised eyebrows when asked at the town hall why
he had downplayed the gravity of the pandemic in its early
months.
“I didn’t downplay it,” Trump replied. “I actually, in
many ways, I up-played it in terms of action.”
speaks to the media as he makes his way to board Air Force One
before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on
September 1, 2020, heading to Kenosha, Wisconsin to meet with law
enforcement officials and to survey damage following civil unrest
in the city. MANDEL NGAN / AFP
But Trump himself told journalist Bob Woodward during
taped interviews that he had deliberately decided to “play it down”
to avoid alarming Americans.
The president, who is rarely seen wearing a mask in public and
long refused to push Americans to adopt the habit, told the town
hall that “a lot of people don’t want to wear masks and people
don’t think masks are good.”
The comment caught wide flak, including from Biden, who also
knocked Trump for saying the Democrat declined to
institute a mask mandate.
“I’m not the president, he’s the president,” Biden whispered
into the microphone.
Trump’s anti-mask message got a dressing down of sorts by
Redfield too, as the CDC director held up a medical mask to
senators and said “I might go so far as to say that this facemask
is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than when I take a
Covid vaccine.”
Trump rejected the assertion outright, and noted that he
called Redfield to ask him what he meant.
“I think there are a lot of problems with
masks,” Trump said. “It’s not more effective than a
vaccine.”
Biden routinely appears at campaign events wearing a mask, and
usually takes it off to deliver a speech. Trump, who is
trailing in pre-election polling, has mocked Biden for wearing a
mask.
Polls show a majority of Americans disapprove of Trump’s
handling of the pandemic.
AFP