US President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday and pushed a conspiracy theory that the deep state is delaying a coronavirus vaccine until after the election. He wrote and said, “The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics. Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd, must focus on speed, and saving lives”! The head of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Dr. Stephen Hahn was nominated by President Trump for the role in 2019. Human trials for a Covid-19 vaccine are currently ongoing around the world. There are still many aspects which scientists don’t fully understand the virus, which has killed more than 800,000 people around the world.
President Trump followed up on his tweet with another and referred the FDA’s decision to revoke emergency authorization of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for treating COVID-19. He said that it is unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus. He said, “Many doctors and studies disagree with this”! Point to be noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci said he expects a safe vaccine to be ready around the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. Donald Trump earlier claimed in August that a vaccine would possibly be ready by the US presidential election, or right around that time. Dr. Fauci cautioned against rushing the process following Russian claims they have already produced a safe vaccine.
Dr. Fauci said, “We have to be careful when you hear from Russia or China or anyplace else that they have a vaccine that they know works. They may have a product that they’re willing to take the risk to give it to people without necessarily showing yet that it’s effective or that it’s safe”. The Trump administration has pre-ordered hundreds of millions of doses from companies developing vaccines, which be distributed for free. The death toll from the coronavirus in the US has now crossed 173,000, while total cases passed 5.5 million. The cases have trended downward nationwide in recent weeks. It is noteworthy that most of the deaths are occurring in Arizona, Florida, California, and Texas.