KAMALA HARRIS SLAMS TRUMP FOR FORCING OK OF COVID VACCINE

Democratic US vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said she would not take President Donald Trump’s word alone on any potential coronavirus vaccine, Raphael Satter reported for Reuters early on September 6, 2020.

In an interview excerpt broadcast by CNN on Saturday (Sunday, September 6, 2020 in Manila), Harris said Trump had a track record of suppressing expert opinion about the coronavirus pandemic and that she worried that might happen again in the case of a prospective vaccine. Trump pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 but the medical community and virologists worldwide banned the drug, saying it is useless against the vaccine. He also touted the value of bleach and sanitizers, along with ultraviolet light, only to be shot down by scientists.

Harris suggested to CNN that Trump might seize on a vaccine - no matter how untested - to burnish his image. “He’s looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days and he’s grasping for whatever he can get to pretend he can be a leader on this issue when he’s not,” she said.

“I would not trust Donald Trump,” Harris said, saying she would be convinced of the efficacy of a vaccine only if someone credible were vouching for it as well. “I will not take his word for it.” With the government’s handling of the world’s worst outbreak of the disease under fire, Trump has dangled the possibility that a vaccine might be ready ahead of the Nov. 3 US presidential election. But Trump has a track record of flouting scientific advice and some experts are skeptical that vaccine trials, which have to study potential side effects on a wide range of people before they can deliver a verdict, can be completed by late this year or even early next year.