Donald Trump willing to work with China on coronavirus vaccine for US
- Remarks comes day after study shows candidate developed by CanSino and China’s military research unit is safe and induces immune response
- US president has resumed daily Covid-19 press briefings as US cases continue to climb
US President Donald Trump expressed a willingness on Tuesday to work with China or other countries to bring a successful coronavirus vaccine to the United States, despite rising tensions between Beijing and Washington.
“We’re willing to work with anybody that is going to get us a good result,” Trump said, when asked if the administration would collaborate with China on a vaccine for Americans, whether China is first to develop one or not.
After a three-month hiatus from his freewheeling daily virus briefings, the president returned to the podium on Tuesday, keeping the stage to himself without the public health experts who were staples of his previous events but keeping close to scripted remarks prepared by aides.
Besides declaring support for masks as a way to fight the pandemic, he admonished young people against crowding bars and spreading the disease. It all marked a delayed recognition by Trump that the economic reopening he has been championing since April – and more importantly, his re-election – were imperilled by spiking cases nationwide.
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His remarks on potential vaccines came a day after researchers said a candidate developed by China’s CanSino Biologics and China’s military research unit appeared to be safe and induced immune responses in most subjects in a closely-watched mid-stage study.
The CanSino candidate is one of a handful of vaccines that have shown some promise in early human testing. Others gearing up for such trials include vaccines from US-based Moderna and Germany’s BioNTech, in partnership with American drug maker Pfizer.
Trump has long blamed China for mishandling the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and charged across the United States, killing more than 140,000 Americans and raising the stakes for a quick and viable vaccine.
“I think we’re going to have some very good results. We’re already in testing. Nobody thought that would be possible,” he said. “I think you’re going to see something over the next fairly short period of time – maybe very short period of time – having to do with therapeutics and vaccines that are very good,” he said.
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The president continued to refer to the virus behind Covid-19 as the “China virus” on Tuesday, though he shifted his messaging on the US outbreak, saying it would “probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better” and continued his recent encouragement of Americans to wear masks when social distancing was not possible.
“Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact,” he said. “I’m getting used to the mask,” he added, pulling one out after months of suggesting that mask-wearing was a political statement against him.
Swathes of the country are now battling rising infections and growing deaths, and some states are once again having to close businesses and rethink school in the fall. Many retailers themselves are insisting their customers don masks.
The early evening show at the White House came as the next stage of the federal government’s response to the pandemic was being crafted on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers and White House officials were opening negotiations on a trillion-dollar-or-more “phase four” rescue package.
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Little more than three months from Election Day, Trump and his political team hoped that the podium spotlight would give him an edge against Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Trump’s daily turns in the White House briefing room largely ended in late April after the president’s widely derided suggestion that injecting toxic disinfectant could help treat the coronavirus. The comment prompted widespread medical warnings against the potentially deadly move.
Scrapping the briefings was welcomed by aides who believed they were dragging down the president’s poll numbers, particularly with older voters. However, with his trademark rallies largely on hold because of the coronavirus, the view in Trump’s circle is that he needs an alternate means to reach voters.
And Trump missed the days when would dominate cable television ratings with his early evening briefings. Tellingly, when he announced on Monday that the appearances could return, he did so with an eye toward their time slot and a boast about ratings.
Reuters and Associated Press
