The US President said the country is pouring resources into expediting vaccine trials and getting ready to quickly produce and distribute the vaccine once it's been developed.
ADVERTISEMENTPresident Donald Trump said on Friday that he’s hopeful to have a coronavirus vaccine on the market by the end of the year or shortly thereafter.
"We're looking to get it [a vaccine] by the end of the year if we can," Trump said, "or shortly thereafter."
Early trial data suggests that “a few hundred million doses of vaccine” will be delivered by late 2020, former pharmaceutical executive Moncep Slaoui, who is serving as the Trump administration's virus authority, said during the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House.
Speaking from the Rose Garden, Trump added that the US is "getting ready so that when we get the good word that we have the vaccine (...) we're ready to go."
He also said that the country's economy should start to bounce back during the last quarter of the year, with 2021 looking "tremendous" and reiterated that he wants to see states move forward with reopening their economies.
“We are back, vaccine or no vaccine,” Trump said. "We are not going to close our country for five years, this is not going to happen."
Trump blamed China for the virus, saying: "This came from China. There are now 186 countries affected, it should have been stopped in China before it got out in the world."