Published 01:00 IST, November 2nd 2020
US Election 2020: Trump's COVID-19 vaccine before Nov 3 promises blasted by health experts
With the US presidential election just around the corner, health experts have blasted Donald Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine before election day promises.
With the US presidential election just around the corner, health experts have blasted Donald Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine before election day promises. Trump and the White House advisors have repeatedly said that hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses would be "ready to go" by Election Day.
However, on October 30, just three days before the election day, doctors have said that COVID-19 vaccinations were just another false campaign promise. Medical experts, including molecular medicine professor Eric Topol and Dr. Anthony Fauci, said that the failure to deliver vaccine by Election Day was expected.
Trump and the White House Coronavirus Task Force head, Vice President Mike Pence, have vowed since the first week of March to have vaccine available "very soon". Back in September, the US President, while accusing FDA and CDC health experts of playing politics, had even said that the country will have "vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special day." Trump has repeatedly also blamed health experts for his administration's inability to oversee the rollout of a vaccine before November 3.
Trump criticised for COVID-19 vaccine promises
Now, with the election just a day away, physicians have criticised Trump’s continued claims that COVID-19 vaccines are imminent. Dr. Tom Frieden, who is an infectious disease expert and former director of the CDC, said on Friday that the deliberate disinformation makes this the "Scariest. Halloween. Ever."
Previously, the CDC had said that November 15 is when states should be ready to distribute COVID-19 vaccines; however, independent medical advisers said that it is a very aspirational date at best.
Several political critics have also criticised Trump’s Election Day vaccine promise as another unfulfilled political talking point akin to the southern border wall. While Trump, on Friday, reiterated that a safe vaccine will be delivered in just a matter of weeks, Dr. Renuga Vivekananda, who is an infectious disease physician with CHI Health and Creighton University, asked "Where’s the vaccine".
With just hours until the election and more than 86 million votes already cast, time is running out for Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden to change the contours of a race framed largely around the incumbent’s handling of the pandemic. Trump, who calls himself an optimist, said that the nation is "rounding the turn" from the outbreak that still kills about 1,000 US citizens each day. The US President said that a vaccine would be delivered "in a matter of weeks" despite the fact that any vaccine is yet to receive approval.
Updated 01:00 IST, November 2nd 2020