Supporters of outgoing president Donald Trump gather during a rally in Oregon. Donald Trump had promised a vaccine before November 3
Credit: Anadolu Agency
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter
Donald Trump Jnr has questioned the timing of multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer’s vaccine study announcement on Monday, two days after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the bitterly fought presidential election – describing it as “nefarious”
Mr Trump’s eldest son appeared to insinuate Pfizer had waited until after the election was called in the Democrats’ favour to make the news public.
Tweeting minutes after Pfizer’s statement was released, he said: “The timing of this is pretty amazing. Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?”
He also shared a link to a story that claimed talk of a second wave was “misleading”, suggesting that he believed the threat of coronavirus had been “exaggerated on purpose.”
In doing so, he repeated one of his father’s favourite talking points that the media was overblowing the pandemic as part of a plot against him.
The outgoing president told supporters during the campaign he believed should Mr Biden be elected, the media and the Democratic Party would "suddenly" stop covering the virus.
Donald Trump had promised a vaccine before November 3, hoping it would boost his chances of re-election. However, scientists said the timeline was unlikely given trials were still ongoing.
At the same time, Donald Trump tweeted about the trials, writing: “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”
Donald Trump Jr at the Republican convention at the Mellon auditorium in Washington, DC in August. He also shared a link to a story that claimed talk of a second coronavirus wave was “misleading”
Credit: Olivier Douliery/AFP
The stockmarket did skyrocket on Monday morning, breaking records on the news that late-stage clinical trial data for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate was more than 90 per cent effective.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up by 5.5 per cent, hovering at 29,887, well above its pre-pandemic peak of 29,569.
A number of White House officials and advisers were quick to congratulate the outgoing president, who will be buoyed by the news as he continues to refuse to concede to Mr Biden.
Outgoing vice president Mike Pence, who heads the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, meanwhile, lauded the administration’s supposed role in creating the vaccine.
He tweeted: “HUGE NEWS: Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by President @realDonaldTrump, @pfizer announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trial is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90 per cent of its volunteers.”
However, Pfizer later made clear it had not joined the administration’s accelerated vaccine development programme, Operation Warp Speed, and had received no money from the US government for its research.
Warp Speed had promised $2 billion (£1.5bn) to Pfizer to buy doses of any eventual vaccine, not for its development.
Kathrin Jansen, a senior vice president and the head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, said: “We were never part of the Warp Speed. We have never taken any money from the US government, or from anyone."
Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive, said the election was always an artificial deadline
Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and chief executive, said the election was always an artificial deadline and that the data was going to be ready when it was ready.
The independent data monitors met on Sunday, analysing the test results so far and notifying the company.
One Twitter user, Bryan Swimmer, replied to Donald Trump Jnr’s tweet: “As someone who was part of the Pfizer vaccine study phase 3, that’s been their timeline all along. Results by late October, then pushed back to early/mid November. Trying to politicise this is both sad and disgusting. But I guess that’s par for the course for Trump’s spawn.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top-infectious disease expert who has been sidelined by the Trump administration, said the results suggesting 90 per cent effectiveness were “just extraordinary.”
Dr Fauci said: “Not very many people expected it would be as high as that.”
President-elect Joe Biden, for his part, welcomed the news but cautioned that it could be many months before vaccinations become widespread in the US, and he warned Americans to rely on masks and social distancing in the meantime.
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