Speaking from the Oval Office, President Trump praised vaccine development efforts and his administration’s response to Covid-19. The President told reporters he thinks the public will hear some “very good news” on vaccines.
Trump said he’s spoken to the chief of drug-maker Pfizer as the company claims it’s on track to provide data about its vaccine trial by next month.
“I think the vaccines will be announced very soon, and I think you are going to see great companies announcing these vaccines,” Trump said. “And I think you are going to hear some very good news. And also, to me, maybe even better, I think when it comes to therapeutics.”
Trump said he’d spoken with Pfizer on Friday. A day earlier, the company’s CEO said it should have enough data to know if its product works by the end of October.
“As far as we’re concerned they’re very close to announcing some very big news,” Trump said later. “The vaccines are going to come out soon and the therapeutics are continuing.”
Along with Pfizer, Trump said he has spoken with the heads of Johnson and Johnson and Moderna, which are also working on a coronavirus vaccine.
“We have tremendous talent, some tremendous scientists, and they’re right there,” he said.
British drugmaker AstraZeneca said Monday it has started phase three trials of its experimental coronavirus vaccine in the United States, becoming the third company to start late-stage trials of a vaccine to prevent Covid-19.
CNN reported on Thursday that Trump has cranked up pressure on administration health officials to expedite work both on a coronavirus vaccine and on treatments that might signal to voters there is an end in sight to the life-altering pandemic that has imperiled his reelection prospects.
With regards to the jobs report released this morning that showed employers added 1.4 million jobs in August, the President said he believes the country will see “tremendous growth in the very near future.”
Trump’s rival Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks soon from Delaware on the economy and Covid-19.