Trump: All Americans will have vaccine by April
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday that every American will have access to a coronavirus vaccine by April, the latest in a series of ever more optimistic predictions about a vaccination program that has yet to secure FDA approval.
Several of Trump’s critics expressed skepticism about that timeline.
As he faces reelection in November, Trump has often offered rosy – and incorrect – assessments about the speed for defeating the virus. In March, he said he wanted to see “packed” churches and businesses reopened by Easter. He also repeatedly set unrealistic deadlines for when everyone in the nation would have access to a test.
Yet Trump nevertheless set a marker Friday for the vaccination, a hard deadline – even if the target comes six months after the election. To hit the goal, White House aides said the government would need to have 100 million doses produced by year’s end.
“Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “I think distribution will go even quicker than most people think.”
Trump’s critics expressed skepticism about the speed of delivery, citing logistical challenges as well as concerns that Trump will promise virtually anything in the weeks before the election and as the nation wrestles with a pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Though several vaccine trials are underway, none have been approved and public health experts have noted the process takes months at best.