Trump adviser Peter Navarro claims China may be keeping coronavirus data to win global vaccine race
- Peter Navarro, an outspoken critic of China says, says US will ‘beat’ them because of Trump’s leadership
- Most public health officials say no vaccine is expected to be ready for use until at least 2021
White House adviser Peter Navarro charged on Monday that China may be withholding data about early coronavirus infections because it wants to win the commercial race to create a vaccine.
The United States, which has been the country worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic according to official statistics, has repeatedly calling on Beijing to share early data on the outbreak, which was first detected China.
“One of the reasons that they may not have let us in and given us the data on this virus early, is they’re racing to get a vaccine and they think this is just a competitive business race, it’s a business proposition so that they can sell the vaccines to the world,” Navarro told Fox Business Network.
“But we’re going to beat them. We’re going to beat them because of President Trump’s leadership. We’re going to beat them because HHS has already got a five-company horse race,” said Navarro, referring to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump has named Navarro, an outspoken critic of China, to work on supply-line issues relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus that has killed almost 170,000 globally, with more than 2.41 million infected.