President Trump today predicted the coronavirus would ‘go away without a vaccine’ but his own health experts say the opposite.
Trump made the comments in a meeting at the White House with Republican lawmakers.
His prediction came as the United States recorded its highest rate of unemployment since the Great Depression, a second administration staffer tested positive, and the number of coronavirus deaths in the United States is more than 76,000.
‘This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away and we’re not going to see it again,’ Trump said as he admitted, ‘you may have some flare ups.’
Trump was asked by reporters at the event what he meant by that, if he was saying a vaccine wasn’t needed.
‘I just rely on what doctors say,’ Trump said. ‘They say it’s going to go. That doesn’t mean this year, doesn’t mean it’s going to be gone. Frankly by the fall or after the fall, but eventually it’s going to go away. The question is will we need a vaccine. At some point it will probably go away by itself. If we had a vaccine that would be very helpful.’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, though, has said we need a vaccine.
A few weeks ago, Fauci was asked on Fox News about comments Joe Biden had made, that “this isn’t going to be over until we have a vaccine.”
Fauci responded: “There’s truth to that. It’s not going to be over to the point of our being able to not do any mitigation until we have a scientifically sound, safe and effective vaccine.”
A week earlier, at a White House briefing, Fauci was asked whether we will “truly get back to normal in this country before there’s an actual vaccine that’s available to everybody.”
Fauci said we wouldn’t.
“If ‘back to normal’ means acting like there never was a coronavirus problem, I don’t think that’s going to happen until we do have a situation where you can completely protect the population,” Fauci said.
While the question was specifically about a vaccine, Fauci’s answer seemed to allow for the alternative of a very effective treatment. But Fauci said of the question about the vaccine, “You’re absolutely right.”
“I mean, if you want to get to pre-coronavirus, you know, that might not ever happen in the sense of the fact that the threat is there,” he said. “But I believe, with the therapies that will be coming online, and with the fact that I feel confident that over a period of time we will get a good vaccine, that we will never have to get back to where we are right now.”
Trump’s comments also contrast with what he said a few days ago in a Fox News town hall.
Trump at the time said the country is in “need” of a vaccine.
“And I want it — I need the vaccine,” Trump said Sunday. “We need — this country needs the vaccine. And you’re going to have it by the end of the year. I firmly believe it. I may be wrong.”
Trump’s optimism came as a second White House staffer tested positive for the coronavirus this week.
Vice President Mike Pence’s spokesperson Katie Miller, who also serves as a spokesperson for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, tested positive, a day after one of Trump’s valets was reported to have it.
Miller is married to Stephen Miller, an adviser to Trump who works in the West Wing near the Oval Office.
Pence was tested Friday and was negative. Trump, the vice president and most White House staff – which would include Miller’s husband Stephen – are now tested on a daily basis, a change in policy made this week.
Trump said he wasn’t worried about the risk of infection despite the virus moving closer to the Oval Office.
‘I’m not worried,’ he said. ‘We’re taking very strong precautions of the White House.’
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called the White House the ‘safest place that you can come to.’