President Donald Trump expects a coronavirus vaccine to be available to almost the entire U.S. population very soon.
He says this in his first official remarks for over a week at a press conference in the White House late Friday night Danish time.
Trump expects a vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer to be urgently approved so it can be ready by April.
However, the vaccine will not be ready for a single state, namely New York, says the US president.
He claims that the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, will not distribute a vaccine from the Trump administration.
“We can not deliver the vaccine to a state that will not give it to its people immediately,” Donald Trump said at Friday’s press conference.
– It is a very safe vaccine, he adds.
New York State Attorney Letitia James announced in an official statement following Trump’s statement that she is ready to sue the president if he takes his words seriously.
– If the distribution of the vaccine will take place during the Trump administration, and the president wants to gamble with people’s lives, we will sue him and we will win, the statement said.
At the same time, Trump praises himself and his administration for having a vaccine ready already, because according to Trump, it would have taken another president “three to five years” to achieve the same.
– Leaders from other countries have called to congratulate us on what we have managed to do. I would like to congratulate everyone who has been involved in this, it has been a fantastic effort, he says.
Trump has not held a press conference since Democrat Joe Biden was declared the winner of the Nov. 7 U.S. presidential election.
Trump has also not publicly acknowledged his defeat for Biden.
At Friday’s press conference, Trump rejects that his administration will introduce new shutdowns of the country in the fight against the coronavirus.
In this connection, a comment falls on the recent presidential election on 3 November.
– Whatever happens in the future, who knows what government we want. I think time will tell, but I can say that this administration will not implement more shutdowns, Trump said.
This statement has been interpreted in several international media – including the news agency Reuters – as the first to recall a recognition of the defeat of Biden.
/ ritzau / Reuters
