USA / COVID-19 vaccine ready, expected within weeks: Trump during debate

Washington: In a tall claim, Donald Trump said that a coronavirus vaccine is ready and will be coming 'within weeks'. Speaking at the final pre-election US presidential debate against Joe Biden, Trump added that the vaccine will be distributed by the military across the US.

"We have a vaccine that's coming, it's ready, it's going to be announced within weeks," news agency AFP quoted Trump as saying.

However, according to news agency Reuters, Trump further clarified, "It's not a guarantee".

Vaccine ready to be delivered, says Trump

Trump, 74, further said that the vaccine is ready to be delivered. "It will be delivered," he said as quoted by Reuters.

He added that companies like Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer are doing very well on that front.

“We also have others that we're working on very closely with other countries, in particular, Europe,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.

Asserting that his timeline is going to be more accurate, Trump said he has his generals lined up for the fast distribution of the vaccine, as he expects to have 100 million vials.

“As soon as we have the vaccine, he (general) is ready to go,” said the president, who is seeking re-election.

We have rounded the corner, says Donald Trump

During the US presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed that the US was 'rounding the turn', adding, "We have rounded the corner", news agency PTI quoted him as saying.

However, the latest numbers show a rise in cases and hospitalisations in the US. Around 60,000 new daily coronavirus cases are being reported across the US, up from around 50,000 a day at the beginning of October, according to the Covid Tracking Project, said PTI.

According to Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the coronavirus has so far infected more than 41 million people and killed over 1.1 million people globally. The US is the worst affected country with over 8 million cases and 223,000 deaths.

Donald Trump says 'learn to live with' coronavirus

During the debate, Donald Trump advocated opening up the country and said 'learn to live with it'. According to a report in CNN, President Trump claimed he does not say the pandemic will be over soon but that Americans "are learning to live with it. We have no choice."

To this, Joe Biden said as quoted by AP, “He says we’re, you know, we’re learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it".

Former vice president Biden, 77, challenged Trump and alleged that his policies have resulted in a large number of deaths in the country.

“We are about to go into a dark winter. A dark winter and he has no clear plan and there's no prospect that there's going to be a vaccine available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year,” Biden said, as quoted by PTI.

Trump responded, “I don't know if we're going to have a dark winter at all. We are opening up our country. We've learned and studied and understood the disease, which we didn't at the beginning. When I closed and banned China from coming in, heavily infected, and then ultimately Europe, but China was in January months later, he was saying I was xenophobic. I did it too soon".

According to PTI, Biden said: “He is xenophobic, but not because he shut down access from China. And he did it late, after 40 countries had already done that. In addition to that, what he did, he made sure that we had 44 people that were in there in China trying to get to Wuhan to determine what exactly the source was.

“What did the president say in January? He said 'no', he said he's being transparent. The president of China is being transparent. We owe him a debt of gratitude. We have to thank him then what happened was we started talking about using the Defense Act to make sure we go out and get whatever is needed out there to protect people”, Biden said as quoted by PTI.

He added, "He (Trump) had nothing. He did virtually nothing and then he gets out of the hospital and he talks about this don't worry. It's all going to be over soon. Come on. And there's not another serious scientist of the world who thinks it's going to be over soon”.

Trump advocates opening up the country

Shortly after the last debate, Trump contracted coronavirus and spent three days in a hospital.

“We have no choice. We cannot lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does. He has the ability to lock himself up. I don't know. He's obviously made a lot of money someplace. But he has this thing about living in the basement,” he said, as per PTI.