DONALD TRUMP has claimed that a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready by the end of the year.
Speaking at a virtual town hall hosted by Fox News, the US President said: “We think we’ll have a vaccine by the end of this year and we’re pushing very hard.
“We’re building supply lines … we have many companies who are, I think close, we are very confident we’re going to have a vaccine by the end of the year…we’re pushing very hard for it. Many companies are, I think, close.”
Trump’s predictions followed several meetings with major pharmaceutical companies and comes despite White immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci previously warning that a vaccine could take 18 months to develop.
His prediction echoes that of the UK’s Professor Chris Whitty who said the likelihood of an effective vaccine or treatment arriving in 2020 was “incredibly small”.
The US Food and Drug Administration has already moved to approve anti-viral drug Remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19.
The drug is now authorised as an emergency treatment after a study found it reduced the amount of time it takes to recover from COVID-19 by four days.
Over 68,000 Americans have already died from the coronavirus and Trump has warned that that figure could well reach 100,000.
“We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people,” he said
“That’s a horrible thing. We shouldn’t lose one person over this.”
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 03: President Donald Trump speaks with news anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum during a Virtual Town Hall inside of the Lincoln Memorial on May 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images)Despite the sobering figures, the President believes the death toll could have been far worse had he not acted.
“If we didn’t do it, the minimum we would have lost was a million two, a million four, a million five, that’s the minimum,” he said.
“We would have lost probably higher, it’s possible higher than 2.2.”
He also rejected any suggestion that his administration was slow to react to the outbreak, telling Fox News: "We did the right thing."
Trump instead pointed the finger of blame at China for its failure to stop the spread of the virus.
"I think they made a horrible mistake, and they didn't want to admit it," he said.
“We wanted to go in. They didn't want us there."
See More: Covid-19, Donald Trump, Lockdown, Vaccine
