Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Enough Vaccine For All Americans By April? Trump Says Yes, Experts Say Probably Not
The Washington Post: Trump Says, Without Evidence, Every American Will Get Coronavirus Vaccine By April
President Trump said Friday that every American would have access to a coronavirus vaccine by April, contradicting his own statement of two days earlier and sowing deeper confusion about the process and timing of vaccine approval and distribution. When Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said earlier in the week that the general public was unlikely to get access to a vaccine until the second and third quarters of 2021, echoing other scientific leaders in the administration, Trump said he’d misspoken. ... Then, at a news briefing Friday, Trump announced a specific timeline, not far off from the one Redfield had laid out two days earlier. (Itkowitz and Johnson, 9/18)
CNN: Trump Says Every American Can Get A Coronavirus Vaccine By April, But Health Experts Say That's Not Likely
"We'll have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year, and likely much more than that," [Trump] said. "Millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April." (Fox and Carvajal, 9/18)
Politico: Trump Says U.S. Will Have Vaccine Doses For All Americans In April
Trump touted the timeline as evidence of "historic progress," and said of a vaccine, "we essentially have it — we will be announcing it soon." Notably, the president did not repeat his familiar prediction that the government would authorize a vaccine by election day, which top government scientists have said would be unlikely. The Food and Drug Administration has not yet given emergency authorization or approval to any of the coronavirus vaccines now in development. Vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca are now in the final stage of clinical trials in the United States, and the government has pre-purchased hundreds of millions of doses of at least a half-dozen experimental shots. (Owermohle, 9/18)
USA Today: Coronavirus: Trump Says Americans Will Have COVID-19 Vaccine By April
Trump's critics expressed skepticism about the speed of delivery, citing logistical challenges as well as concerns that Trump will promise virtually anything in the weeks before the election and as the nation wrestles with a pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 Americans. Though several vaccine trials are underway, none have been approved and public health experts have noted the process takes months at best. (Fritze, Collins and Jackson, 9/18)
In related news —
The New York Times: Health Officials Tiptoe Around Trump’s Vaccine Timeline
As the nation’s coronavirus death toll neared 200,000, top administration health officials on Sunday delicately sidestepped President Trump’s ambitious declaration last week that a vaccine would be available for every American by April. Instead, Adm. Brett Brett P. Giroir, who heads up national testing efforts, and Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, offered a slightly more conservative timetable for vaccine availability. (9/20)
