Trump to announce a 'major therapeutic breakthrough' regarding coronavirus today

The US President Donald Trump will hold a press conference at around 6:00 pm ET on August 23 to discuss "a major therapeutic breakthrough" regarding COVID-19. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany informed about the conference and said that US Health chief Alex Azar and Food & Drug Administration (FDA) head Stephen Hahn would also be in attendance. This comes a day after President Donald Trump accused the FDA of delaying the coronavirus vaccine, saying that the agency wants to delay it until after the upcoming poll in the country. 

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Trump on Saturday tweeted that the 'deep state' in the FDA is making it difficult for drug companies to test their vaccines, tagging FDA chief Stephen Hahn in his post, whom he himself nominated for the role last year, and asking him to focus on the quick release of possible life-saving drugs. If political pundits are to believed, Donald Trump wants the COVID-19 vaccine to be rushed due to the presidential election in November, even if it means a compromise on the safety and efficacy front of the drug. 

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'Will not cut corners'

Stephen Hahn had last week said that the agency "will not cut corners" when it comes to the authorisation of a COVID-19 vaccine. His comment came on the backdrop of Russia announcing the world's first coronavirus vaccine on August 11. The United States government has signed agreements with companies worth billions of dollars for at least six different vaccine candidates, including the AstraZeneca and Oxford's ChAdOx1, which has been dubbed as the frontrunner by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Health officials in the United States had said last week that the government will distribute the COVID-19 vaccine for free, when available.

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(Image Credit: AP)