Trump hails vaccine progress
First remarks after election loss come as pandemic is surging
The president offered a rosy update on the race for a vaccine in his first public remarks since his defeat.
WASHINGTON — Gliding over significant challenges still to come, President Donald Trump on Friday offered a rosy update on the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus as he delivered his first public remarks since his defeat by presumptive President-elect Joe Biden. He still did not concede the election.
Trump spoke from the the Rose Garden as the nation sets records for confirmed cases of COVID-19, and as hospitalizations near critical levels and fatalities climb to the highest levels since the spring. He said a vaccine would ship in “a matter of weeks” to vulnerable populations, though the Food and Drug Administration has not yet been asked to grant the necessary emergency approvals.
Public health experts worry that Trump’s refusal to take aggressive action on the pandemic or to coordinate with the Biden team during the final two months of his presidency will only worsen the effects of the virus and hinder the nation’s ability to swiftly distribute a vaccine next year.
On Friday, The Associated Press declared Trump the winner of North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes after concluding there were not enough ballots left to be counted that would allow Biden to overtake the president’s lead of nearly 74,000 votes, or 1.3 percentage points.
Biden leads the Electoral College count 290 to 232.
Although some news organizations
declared Biden the winner in Georgia on Friday, where he leads Trump by 0.3 percentage points, the AP has not.
Under Georgia law, the trailing candidate may request a recount if the victory margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. It is AP’s practice not to call a race that is — or is likely to become — subject to a recount.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, said Trump is “not even at that point yet” whenit comes to conceding to Biden. Trump has leveled baseless allegations of
widespread voter fraud, even as his own administration has said there is no evidence to support the claims. His aides suggest he is merely trying to keep his base of supporters on his side in defeat.
As states impose new restrictions in the face of rising caseloads, Trump asked all Americans to remain “vigilant.” But he ruled out a nationwide “lockdown” and appeared to acknowledge that the decision won’t be his much longer.
“This administration will not be going to a lockdown,” he said. “Hopefully whatever
happens in the future, who knows, which administration it will be. I guess time will tell, but I can tell you this administration will not go to a lockdown.”
Biden, for his part, has not endorsed a nationwide shutdown, but he appealed for Trump to take “urgent action” to curtail the spread of the virus. “The crisis does not respect dates on the calendar, it is accelerating right now,” he said in a statement Friday.
Trump said vaccines would “arrive within a few weeks,” saying they were ready and merely awaiting approval — and would be
given “to high-risk individuals right away.” In fact, there’s no guarantee that Pfizer’s shot, the front-runner, will get rapid authorization for emergency use. Even if it does, there’s no information yet indicating if the vaccine works in older adults or just younger, healthier adults. .
Trump took no questions Friday from reporters. He hasn’t answered questions since before Election Day.
Meanwhile, his campaign prediction that the U.S. was “rounding the turn” on the pandemic has met a harsh reality, with his own White House becoming the focus of yet another outbreak.
Trump’s aggressive travel despite the virus has taken its toll on his protectors aswell. The U.S. Secret Service is experiencing a significant number of cases, many believed to be linked to his rallies in the closing days of the campaign, according to one official.
Trump spoke with conservative media on Friday, including Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera, suggesting he would acknowledge the loss only after exhausting his legal options.
“You know, he told me he was a realist,” Rivera said. “He told me he would do the right thing.”
With more than 100,000 new confirmed U.S. cases reported daily for more than a week, Trump has been more focused on tracking the rollout of a vaccine, which won’t be widely available for months.
He has fumed that Pfizer intentionally withheld an announcement about progress on its vaccine trial until after Election Day, according to a White Houseofficial who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pfizer said it did not purposely withhold trial results.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the effort to get a vaccine to market as speedily and safely as possible, said, “Whilewe arenot there yet, we are close to the objective” to having a vaccine ready for deployment by the end of the year.
Trump said hewould not ship vaccines to hard-hit New York until Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs off, noting that the state has promised to do its own review to ensure their safety. “The governor will let us know when he’s ready,” Trump said.